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Baramati voters divided in Pawar versus Pawar battle
While the Lok Sabha contest in Baramati is likely to be between Sunetra and Supriya, its outcome will determine who has complete control over the organisation that saw Ajit rebel in July 2023, taking away the symbol and the party
For more than five decades, Baramati has been a bastion of the Pawar family with Sharad Pawar representing the Lok Sabha constituency till 2009, and his daughter Supriya Sule entered the fray and won the seat for the first time. In all the three terms, Sule worked hard to ensure her victory.
This time, things have changed with her cousin and strong backer Ajit Pawar no longer on her side. On his part, the deputy chief minister is all set to field his wife Sunetra Pawar, who has already started holding meetings.
On Friday, Ajit attended seven smaller meetings in Baramati tehsil and delivered a common message: “I have listened to all your problems. Now, you have to elect a candidate that I will chose”.
While the Lok Sabha contest in Baramati is likely to be between Sunetra and Supriya, its outcome will determine who has complete control over the organisation that saw Ajit rebel in July 2023, taking away the symbol and the party.
The Baramati residents are however in dilemma over who to support as they see that the actual battle is being fought between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit.
“Sharad Pawar is like a father for us and Ajitdada is brother. It will be very difficult to choose one of them,” said Srihari Deshmukh, a resident.
Realising that the battle this time is harder than previous polls, Pawar senior is also campaigning personally to ensure the victory of his daughter for the fourth time. As part of his efforts, Sharad Pawar has held review meetings with workers and representatives of cooperative and educational institutions from Baramati. He has also attended various public meetings in Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, something the octogenarian has not done in the past considering that the seat has always been the family bastion.
Last week, Pawar senior turned to Bhor MLA Sangram Thopte of the Congress saying he would back the legislator. Sangram’s father Anantrao Thopte, who represented Bhor in the assembly six times before a shock defeat in 1999, was known as one of Pawar’s rivals within the Congress when the latter was with the grand old party. The rivalry between Pawar senior and Anantrao goes back to more than three decades.
At the same time, Ajit is also not leaving any stone unturned as winning Baramati is crucial for his faction of NCP. After rebelling from the party and joining ranks with the BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) government in the state, Ajit is planning to take full control over the party by striking hard in Baramati to stop Sharad Pawar’s politics as the town stands tall as a shining example of NCP founder’s multi-faceted development initiatives in rural parts.
For many elections in the past, the BJP tried its best to defeat the Pawars on their home turf with little success so far. However, this is for the first time that the BJP has Ajit on its side and the nephew has already made it clear that he will retain the Baramati seat for the party candidate to fight polls during seat-sharing talks with the Mahayuti alliance.
