Sharad Pawar’s Grandnephew Yugendra Pawar To Contest Against Ajit Pawar In Baramati

Maharashtra’s Baramati, the pocketborough of the undivided Nationalist Congress Party, will see another battle between the two factions of the party and the family — with Ajit Pawar himself in the fray. Facing him would be Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Yugendra Pawar, the son of Ajit Pawar’s brother Shrinivas Pawar.

During the Lok Sabha election, he had campaigned for his aunt and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule Sule, and led the party’s Swabhiman Yatra from Baramati in September.

For the Ajit Pawar faction, this is the big chance to regain the face it lost in the Lok Sabha election held earlier this year. Not only did the party fail to win more than one of the four seats it contested, Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar had been trounced by his cousin Supriya Sule from Baramati. 

Regarding that election, Ajit Pawar had later expressed regrets, saying he should not have fielded his wife against his cousin, or indeed, left the family. 

One should not allow politics to enter home, he had told a Marathi news channel shortly after the election.

“I love all my sisters. One shouldn’t allow politics to enter homes. I made a mistake in fielding Sunetra against my sister. This shouldn’t have happened. But the parliamentary board (of NCP) made a decision. Now I feel it was wrong,” Ajit Pawar had said, raising speculation of a possible rapprochement.

But two months on, he is up against his nephew from the same seat. Yugendra Pawar, an alumni of Boston’s Northeastern University, has been prepping for his political launch under Sharad Pawar and is known to be close to him.

Ajit Pawar has been representing Baramnati since 1991, when the NCP was not formed and he and his uncle, Sharad Pawar, were part of the Congress. 

This time, he had said he was “not interested” in contesting elections any more. Amid speculation that his son Jay Pawar would contest from Baramati, he had said that would be his party’s decision.

“It is democracy. I am not interested in that (contesting elections) as I have contested seven or eight elections. If the people and supporters think so, the (NCP) parliamentary board will discuss it,” he said. If the parliamentary board and “people” felt that Jay should be fielded, the NCP was ready to field him, he had added. But his name was there in the party’s first list announced. 

Ajit Pawar’s elder son Parth Pawar had contested the Maval Lok Sabha seat in 2019 but lost by a heavy margin.

Sharad Pawar had founded the NCP with former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999 after their expulsion from the Congress. 

In July last year, Ajit Pawar – complaining about Sharad Pawar’s leadership — had walked away with a majority of MLAs and supported the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde.