When Supriya Sule won elections in Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, the NCP camp was quite relieved. In a constituency where Sharad Pawar had been winning consistently with high margins, the victory margin of the NCP chief’s daughter was 70,000 votes that too after trailing in several assembly segments in the initial hours on counting day. When counting proceeded, rival Mahadeo Jankar was leading in several Assembly segments and that led to exchange of SMSes like “Is Sule trailing, really?” Jankar, a trained electronics engineer of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, supported by BJP and Shiv Sena, lost in the end. Two days after results, NCP Baramati president Sambhaji Holkar said, “We did well in Baramati assembly but the other five segments were beyond our control.” Jankar had contested against Sharad Pawar when he switched to Madha from Baramati in 2009. Jankar had then got a total of only 50,000 votes, which, against Pawar, was enough to get him noticed. When Jankar contested against Sule in Baramati this time, Pawars left no stone unturned. Sule led from the front, campaigning under scorching sun for 12-13 hours a day. Jankar, from Palaswade village of Satara district had left home 23 years back. “He has taken a vow never to return home and has severed ties with relatives,” says Satish Thombre, a close associate. For Jankar, it is not a defeat. “It was not a defeat for me.It was a moral victory,” he says, vowing to change the face of Baramati. As for Sule’s cousin and deputy CM Ajit Pawar allegedly threatening people of Masalwadi village that water supply to their village will be cut off if they did not vote for Sule, Jankar says,”I will persuade EC to debar him from polls.” Ajit Pawar denied that he had issued any threat.