Supriya Sule has already been fielded from Baramati seat; from Ajit’s side (NDA), his wife’s candidature was announced on Saturday.
The Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra is all set for a high pitched battle between the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party, one led by Ajit Pawar, another by his uncle Sharad, for the first time after the split of NCP. The seat has been the stronghold of undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar.
Supriya Sule has already been fielded in Baramati seat from the opposition side; Sunetra Pawar’s name was announced on Saturday as the NDA candidate. According to sources, former Minister Vijay Shivtare and a senior leader of the ruling Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena (part of NDA) has finally been persuaded to withdraw from the election to the Baramati Lok Sabha seat. This has enabled the candidature of Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar, for the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.
Such a setting of candidates would bring the election contest up between the family members Supriya Sule (daughter of senior Pawar) from Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi and Sunetra Pawar (wife of junior Pawar) from BJP led NDA. A party insider said, “This election will be the test of Ajit Pawar. He is a member of legislative assembly from Baramati assembly constituency. It would be interesting to see how many seats he can pull to his side as before everyone has used the name of Sharad Pawar in NCP to get votes.”
An NCP leader in Maharashtra said, “Baramati is such a place where Sharad Pawar sahab’s name is enough. When he will go out and campaign for his daughter, there will be a crowd and sentiments for senior Pawar and such sentiments will help Supriya to sail over the magic numbers easily.”
It is worthy to note Sharad Pawar had been a six-time MP from Baramati, including four times in a row from 1996 to 2004, and Supriya Sule is a three-time winner which she had won subsequently after her father left the NCP bastion for her.
The upcoming contest is seen to make it clear the hold of senior Pawar in the constituency.
In 2019, Sule had amassed more than 52 percent votes leaving the BJP contender Kanchan Rahul Kul far behind at around 40 percent votes.
A political observer said, “If this time BJP led NDA is expecting to break away a chunk of NCP voters (in Baramati) with the help of Ajit Pawar and also consolidate its own vote share, that won’t happen. Last time, they had Shiv Sena voters as well voting for them who won’t vote them this time.”
NCP (led by Sharad Pawar) spokesperson Clyde Crasto told The Sunday Guardian, “Supriya has worked for the people for the last three terms, she has done all the work she is connected with the electorate and people of Maharashtra, that is the plus point, she also won the best Parliamentarian award. I think people of Baramati look up to her and they are very connected with her.”
A Maharashtra leader associated with the seat said, “The issue that will be picked up by both the sides is not development etc but who has done that development etc.
because Baramati has evidently evolved on development front. Ajit dada will claim that he has done it and Supriya Sule will claim that she is the one who helped the process.”