In 2019, the Lok Sabha election was held in the months of April-May and the Maharashtra Assembly election was held a few months later in October. Four Lok Sabha constituencies cover Pune district, and they are divided into 21 Assembly constituencies. In a majority of cases, the alliance that won a seat in the Assembly election also got greater number of votes in the corresponding Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha election. However, four Assembly segments in Pune voted for different alliances in the two elections in 2019. Sunil Tingre of the combined NCP had won the Vadgaonsheri Assembly seat in 2019 who polled 97,700 votes, beating Jagdish Mulik of the BJP, who got 92,725 votes. By contrast in the Lok Sabha election, Girish Bapat of the BJP got 1,17,664 votes in the Vadgaonsheri Assembly segment while NCP’s alliance partner Congress’s Mohan Joshi got 60,843 votes. The Maval Assembly seat, contained within the Lok Sabha constituency of the same name, was won by Sunil Shelke of the NCP, who got 1,67,712 votes, while BJP’s Bala Bhegade got 73,770 votes. However, in the Maval Assembly segment in the Lok Sabha election, Shrirang Barne of the combined Shiv Sena got 1,05,272 votes while Parth Pawar of the NCP got 83,445 votes. The Pimpri Assembly constituency, also falling under the Maval Lok Sabha constituency, was won by Anna Bansode of the NCP, who polled 86,985 votes, while Gautam Chabukswar of the Shiv Sena got 67,177 votes. An opposite picture emerged in the Pimpri Lok Sabha Assembly segment as Shrirang Barne of the Shiv Sena got 1,03,235 votes while Parth Pawar of the NCP got 61,941 votes. The Hadapsar Assembly constituency was won by Chetan Tupe of the NCP, who bagged 92,326 votes against BJP candidate Yogesh Tilekar’s 89,506 votes. But the situation flipped in the Hadapsar Lok Sabha Assembly segment as Shivajirao Patil of the Shiv Sena got 1,11,082 votes while Dr Amol Kolhe of the NCP got 1,05,712 votes. Following splits in the NCP and Shiv Sena after the 2019 election, we may get to see a change in the trend of synchronous voting in the 2024 Assembly election when compared to the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra.
