India, June 24 -- Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar was elected to the 21-member board of the Malegaon Cooperative Sugar Mill in Baramati on Tuesday, securing 91 of the 101 votes cast in the high-stakes election on June 22.

This is the first time in four decades that Pawar has contested sugar mill polls after 1984, when he was elected to the board of directors of the Chhatrapati Cooperative Sugar Mill.

Located in Baramati, the Pawar family's stronghold, the Malegaon factory has more than 19,000 sugarcane-producing shareholders. It is counted among the state's most financially sound cooperatives and is central to both the local economy and political clout in the region.

Pawar's election was among the first to be declared on T...