PUNE, June 25 -- 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 the mid-eighties, 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 regional political clout. Pawar's election was among the first to be declared on Tuesday because election officials only had to count 101 votes. The results for the other seats on the mill's board were expected to take time since more than 19,000 sugarcane-growing shareholders were eligible to vote. Of the total 19,651 voters, 19,549 belong to Group A - sugarcane cultivators from the region - and 102 are from Group B, representing various cooperative bodies. Pawar has filed his nomination in Group B. Pawar had declared during campaigning for the prestige battle, he had addressed over 10 campaign meetings, that he would be the board chairman if the Nilakantheshwar panel, backed by his supporters from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), retained power. 90 candidates are contesting for the 21 seats on the factory's governing body, with four panels in the race. Ajit Pawar is leading the Nilkantheshwar panel, while the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) is backing the Baliraja Panel. The Sahakar Bachav Panel is headed by veteran co-operative leader Shankar Taware, and a fourth group comprises independents and farmers' representatives. In 2019, the Nilkantheshwar panel defeated the panel led by Chandrarao Tawre, a seasoned cooperative sector figure, who was once close to Sharad Pawar but later parted ways. The contest was also viewed as a test of his hold over the cooperative sector in Baramati, especially amid ongoing factional rivalries with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) which entered the fray....