The next fight in the Baramati Lok Sabha seat could be between Sunetra, wife of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, and sitting M.P. Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar are leading rival factions of the NCP.
While addressing a meeting of his supporters on Friday at Karjat, Mr Ajit Pawar had stated that his party would be fielding candidates for the LS polls in Baramati, Shirur, Satara and Raigad. There are indications that he may field his wife Sunetra as his party's nominee in Baramati to challenge Supriya Sule.
Sunetra has no political experience
Unlike Supriya Sule, Sunetra has no political experience. But that may not pose to be a major problem, since Ajitdada has a strong base in Baramati. However, it will not be a cakewalk for Sunetra since Pawar Sr too has a large number of workers in the constituency. It is learnt that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will wholeheartedly back Sunetra, if only to trounce Supriya Sule. On Friday, Ajit Pawar had exposed the alleged double standards of his uncle. He had disclosed that it was indeed Pawar Sr who had asked him to join the BJP-led government. He had also stated that Pawar Sr's resignation from the presidentship of the NCP was only a big drama.
Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar on Saturday stated in Pune that his party's stand of not joining hands with the BJP was always very clear, and even if any suggestion to the contrary came up, he did not approve of the idea. His statement at a news conference came a day after Ajit Pawar targeted him.
"If anyone did suggest that we should support the BJP contrary to the stand we had taken, (even) then many in the party including me did not agree with that (suggestion). Our stand not to go with the BJP was very clear," Sharad Pawar said.
Pawar takes a jibe at nephew
In a jibe at Ajit, the NCP chief further said that if anyone who had taken the oath of office in the wee hours of morning was claiming that it was the party's policy, that person "should not be taken seriously".
On Ajit Pawar declaring that his faction will contest the Baramati Lok Sabha seat -- currently represented by Supriya Sule -- Sharad Pawar said in democracy any person is free to contest from anywhere.
The Ajit Pawar faction, which joined the government of the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in July this year, has claimed in the past that Pawar senior too was in favour of forming alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party at one point.
In 2019, Ajit Pawar had taken an early morning oath of office as deputy chief minister along with Devendra Fadnavis who was sworn in as chief minister amid a deadlock over alliance formation after the assembly elections. But the Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government collapsed within four days for want of numbers.
Speaking at a conclave of his faction at Karjat on Friday, Ajit Pawar, now a deputy chief minister, claimed that the Sharad Pawar-led group had been reaching out to him for a patch-up, and one meeting for this purpose was arranged on August 12 at businessman Atul Chordia's Pune house.
If Pawar senior did not like the decision to join the Shiv Sena-BJP government, why did he seek such a meeting, Ajit Pawar asked.
(with inputs from PTI)
