Pune (Maharashtra) [India], January 17 : The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections witnessed a rare and significant political moment in Vadgaon Sheri, as an exceptionally educated husband-wife duo, Surendra Pathare and Aishwarya Pathare, secured emphatic victories on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tickets from adjoining wards.
Their twin wins have drawn attention not only for their margins, but also for the strategic, social and political implications in the region.
Aishwarya Pathare registered a record-breaking victory from Ward No. 3, winning by a margin of over 15,000 votes, while Surendra Pathare emerged victorious from Ward No. 4. With both wards returning BJP candidates, the party has significantly strengthened its footprint in the Vadgaon Sheri constituency.
Surendra expressed happiness following his electoral success, asserting that he, along with his wife, would work for the welfare of their region.
"Our new generation is there in politics. Earlier, my family members represented this area. A new era of our family has come. We are both going to work for the people of our area. We were very confident about our victory," Surendra Pathare told ANI.
Meanwhile, his wife, Aishwarya, said she is celebrating the victory with her husband, adding that the duo would work on the solutions they had planned during their campaign. She expressed gratitude to the people who placed their trust in her, adding that she would begin working on Saturday and would announce the first 100 problems the couple would solve.
"Both of us are celebrating our respective victories together. We will start working on some of the basic solutions that we had been planning during our campaigning. We were talking to people and have listed the problems. We will declare our first 100 problems that we are going to solve, and we'll start our work. I am thankful to my party and the public who have trusted the new faces, and I'm sure we will serve the community better in the future," Aishwarya Pathare told ANI.
Surendra Pathare is a mechanical engineer, while Aishwarya Pathare is an IT engineer with professional experience in reputed companies in India and abroad. Their educational background and professional exposure helped them connect with the large, highly educated voter base in the Lohgaon-Viman Nagar belt, which has a strong presence of IT professionals, engineers and young working executives.
The Pathare couple's political journey has also sparked wider discussion due to Surendra Pathare's lineage. He is the son of veteran leader Bapu Pathare, a sitting MLA from the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction). Despite this legacy, both Surendra and Aishwarya contested the civic polls on BJP tickets, underlining a clear political realignment that has reshaped local equations.
Aishwarya Pathare's campaign in Ward No. 3 stood out for its emphasis on governance and accountability. She presented a detailed development roadmap addressing roads, infrastructure, water supply, waste management and traffic congestion, along with a 100-day action plan outlining time-bound deliverables.
Her focused outreach to women voters, supported by a separate women-centric manifesto highlighting safety, healthcare, employment and self-reliance, played a decisive role in her landslide win.
Surendra Pathare, contesting from Ward No. 4, leveraged his long-standing grassroots connections, organisational skills and deep understanding of local civic issues. Known for his micro-level planning and strong booth management, he ran a disciplined campaign that blended traditional local networks with issue-based urban politics.
Political observers note that the couple's victories reflect a growing preference among urban voters for educated, professionally experienced candidates with a clear development vision. Their success is also being viewed as a strategic boost for the BJP in eastern Pune, especially in an area where multiple political influences converge.
With both Surendra and Aishwarya Pathare entering the Pune Municipal Corporation together, their wins are being seen as the beginning of a new chapter in Vadgaon Sheri's local politics, one that blends education, modern governance outlook and sharp political strategy.