Now on opposite sides, Pawars in all-out battle for stronghold
PUNE: The electoral battle in Baramati, between two members of the Pawar family, is one of the most keenly watched in this round of Lok Sabha elections – the constituency goes to polls in the third phase on May 7 – and the intensity of the contest, and the very personal stakes involved, have also meant that Sharad Pawar and his nephew, Ajit Pawar, on opposite sides, have found themselves stuck to the once-united family’s citadel.
In the past month, Sharad Pawar, 83, patriarch of the family and also the Nationalist Congress Party or NCP (although his faction is now called the NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar), which is contesting 10 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, has addressed at least 12 rallies and multiple smaller meetings in Baramati. This has taken up roughly 80% of the time he has spent campaigning in other parts of the state, including two public meetings in Satara, and a visit to Solapur earlier this week.
The battle in Baramati is between his daughter and sitting MP Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar, the wife of Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister of the state, who heads the rival faction of the NCP (which has retained the name NCP).
With both Pawars stuck in Baramati, the demand from candidates of their parties for meetings led by leaders in their respective constituencies are piling up. Of the 10 seats, the Pawar faction is
contesting five in western Maharashtra, two in north Maharashtra, and one each in Marathwada, Vidarbha and Bhiwandi. Ajit’s NCP has staked claim on six seats in the Mahayuti alliance (the BJP and the Shiv Sena are the two other constituents of the alliance) of which five have been finalised. These are Baramati, Shirur, Raigad, Osmanabad and Parbhani (given to RSP’s Mahadev Jankar under NCP quota) while decision on Nashik is still pending with BJP and the Shiv Sena too keen to contest from here.
Pawar senior will address around 55 public meetings in the next one month, starting with western Maharashtra, Marathwada and north Maharashtra, a party leader said.
“Pawar will commence his
state tour from April 20, the details of which are being worked out. These public meetings will be not just for NCP(SP) candidates but for other nominees from the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance,” said NCP(SP) spokesperson Ankush Kakade. The Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are the other constituents of this grouping.
Before the octogenarian starts his tour, he plans to address a public rally for Sule in Pune on Thursday before she files her nomination. Sunetra Pawar also plans to file nomination on Thursday in the presence of Ajit Pawar, chief minister Eknath Shinde, and Devendra Fadnvis, also a deputy chief minister.
The focus on Baramati is a change for Pawar. In his earlier campaigns, he used to spend only the last day of canvassing by addressing a public meeting – either for himself till 2004 or for daughter Sule since 2009 – in Baramati.
To be sure, earlier contests were often one sided, except during the Modi wave in 2014 when Sule managed to retain the constituency after campaigning hard and with reduced margin of 64,000 votes.
This time, the contest is not just fierce but almost internal, with the two candidates knowing each other well. Ajit Pawar has already cautioned voters that Pawar could make an emotional appeal on Sule’s behalf, and that they would do well to ignore it. Both Pawar and Ajit Pawar have also held smaller meetings with local workers and representatives of various institutions to check which side they are on.
On March 11, Pawar called off an event of a traders’ body in Baramati after being told about the likelihood of it being poorly attended.
“Something like this has not happened in the last 50 years,” he said that day, while addressing a gathering in Baramati.
Both Pawar and Ajit Pawar have held meetings with NCP workers, the former on February 29 and the latter two weeks later. Ajit Pawar has held more than 15 public rallies and numerous smaller meetings across the constituency. He has spent much of the past 10 days in the constituency.
On Wednesday, for instance, he was at Indapur, interacting with doctors and health care professionals; on Tuesday, he was at Saswad and Baramati .
It is not just the two Pawars who are campaigning for their respective candidates; their family members too are, although the majority of them is with Sule.
This fact hasn’t been lost on Ajit Pawar who claimed on April 9 that this is the first time that members of Pawar family are campaigning. “You (my cousins) did not feel like working for me when I contested the elections. Are you going to work after this election? There will only be Ajit Pawar and his party workers, and no one will be there.” Pawar countered this on Thursday: “In the past too, members of Pawar family campaigned for him, Ajit and for Supriya (Sule).”
While Sule was not available for a comment, party spokesperson Ankush Kakade said: “It is a fact that Sharad Pawar has been spending more time in Baramati now. This is mainly because the rival side is highly resourceful and has been using every possible tactic while we have only past development work to tell people.”
Sunetra Pawar, on the other hand, said: “It is election time and one needs to campaign to convey a message to the people.”