Pawars’ home turf of Baramati in western Maharashtra is preparing itself for a battle royale between two prominent members of the family — Sharad Pawar’s daughter and three-time MP Supriya Sule and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar — in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
While the candidature of NCP (AP) leader Supriya Sule from Baramati was a foregone conclusion, the ruling NCP on Tuesday announced that it would field Sunetra Pawar as its candidate of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
Baramati Lok Sabha constituency has been represented by the Sharad Pawar family for nearly four decades now. While Sharad Pawar was two-time MP, his nephew Ajit Pawar represented Baramati for one term, Supriya Supe has been a three-term MP from Baramati.
Sharad Pawar’s writ would run in Baramati for nearly decades. However, political equations changed in Maharashtra’s prestigious Lok Sabha constituency after his nephew Ajit Pawar rebelled against Sr Pawar, walked out of the NCP with a sizeable number of supporters and took oath as deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government in the state on July 2, 2023.
In the Gram Panchayat elections held in November last year, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP made inroads into the Baramati in the Gram Panchayat(GP) polls, when it walked away with 109 GP seats out of a total 231 seats followed among others by Sr Pawar-led NCP ( 27) and Congress (25).
Even before the announcement of the election schedule, both Sunetra Pawar and Supriya Sule have held a series of meetings. Mobile vans (raths) of both Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar are going around the length and breadth of the constituency.
On her part, Supriya has played down the election against Sunetra, who happens to be her sister-in-law, by saying: “For me it is an ideological fight. There is nothing personal in the contest. Pawar Saheb has stood for a certain ideology and we are committed to it,” Supriya said.
"How can you call this a family fight? Anyone can contest elections from any place in a democracy. I had said earlier that if they have a strong candidate, then I am ready to debate with that candidate. Whatever topic, time, or place they decide, I am ready to sit down and discuss,” she said.
