The Lok Sabha battle in Baramati is not between opposition stalwart Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar but between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, said Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar is pitted against three-time MP Supriya Sule, who is the daughter of Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar.
Addressing a rally in Indapur in the district, Fadnavis also asked supporters of BJP leader Harshavardhan Patil, who lost to (undivided) NCP candidate Dattatray Bharne in the 2019 Assembly polls, to let bygones be bygones and work with vigour towards the larger goal of making Modi prime minister for a third time.
"Some people think the battle of Baramati is between Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar. Some think it is a battle between Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar. Let me tell you this contest is neither Pawar versus Pawar nor Supriya Sule versus Sunetra Pawar. It is a fight between Modiji and Rahul Gandhi," Fadnavis claimed.
Attacking Sule, Fadnavis said she had opposed historic decisions of the Modi government like abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Go through her speeches in Parliament. So people of Baramati must decide if their MP will walk on the path of development being set by Modiji or on Rahul Gandhi's ideology, which is anti-social and is aimed at derailing progress," he said.
The opposition will try to play the sympathy card but voters must be focussed on the larger goal, he added.
Fadnavis said he was fully aware of the aspirations of party workers in the area and would ensure justice was done to all.
Patil is vying for a ticket from Indapur for the Assembly polls later this year, while sitting MLA Bharne is from the Ajit Pawar camp, which is an ally of the BJP.
