Parth Pawar Set To Enter Rajya Sabha; Sunetra Pawar To Contest Baramati Assembly Bypoll - Here’s All You Need To Know

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has made its decision to send Ajit Pawar’s elder son, Parth Pawar, to the Rajya Sabha, sources told The Free Press Journal.

The elections to 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states are scheduled for March 16. The tenure of seven MPs from Maharashtra, including NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar, is coming to an end. MLAs vote in this election, and to win these seven seats, 36 votes are needed. However, due to the NDA’s stellar victory in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls, six out of these seven seats are likely to go in its kitty, leaving only one seat for the Opposition. Out of the six seats, the BJP is likely to claim three, leaving two to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and one to the NCP. This lone seat is likely to be given to Parth Pawar.

Parth Pawar had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from the Maval constituency. However, he lost by a massive margin to Shrirang Barne of the undivided Shiv Sena. Recently, he had also landed in a controversy over a land deal in Pune’s Mundhwa. Fortunately for him, neither an FIR was registered against him nor did the Kharge committee recommend any action against him.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, who is currently neither an MLC nor an MLA, will have to get elected to either of the two Houses of the state legislature within six months. Hence, she will be contesting the Baramati Assembly bypolls when they are announced by the State Election Commission, the sources added.

The Baramati seat fell vacant after Ajit Pawar, who won the Assembly constituency for a record eight times, died in a tragic plane crash on January 28. Following his death, his wife Sunetra took over as the Deputy Chief Minister.

Besides, Sunetra Pawar will also be appointed as the national president of the NCP soon, the sources further said. Ajit Pawar was the party president after his faction split and joined the Mahayuti government.