The Pawar family split spills out on the streets of Baramati

Baramati, political veteran Sharad Pawar’s home turf, is among the most high-profile of Maharashtra’s 48 constituencies. Given that it will be an intra-family fight, this election is also turning out to be one of the most bitterly fought electoral battles in the state.

The stage is set for a tough fight between Supriya Sule, the incumbent MP from the constituency, and her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar, chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-AP) as the Baramati seat is going for polls on Tuesday (May 7.)
The battle for Baramati will not only decide the real political heir to the Pawar empire but also his political legacy, which he built over six decades.
The fight started over taking control of the NCP with a split in the party in July last year. Ajit Pawar took over the party with the help of a majority of MLAs. He won the claim to the party’s name and election symbol before the Election Commission of India (ECI) and subsequently before the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar.
As part of the seat-sharing pact with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), NCP-AP is contesting four Lok Sabha seats and one of them is Baramati. It was subsequently decided that only Ajit’s wife Sunetra could take on Supriya Sule in Baramati.
The decision has broadened the crack within the family to a full-fledged split with members taking clear, and evidently bitter, sides against each other. Even Shrinivas Pawar, Ajit’s elder brother has called his brother (Ajit Pawar) “nalayak” (unworthy) and “disrespectful” towards senior Pawar. “His actions have been ungrateful,” he commented recently. “It pained me to see how for short-term gains, a senior person is being treated like this. I don’t think there’s such a useless person like him.”
The damaging remarks are expected to cast a shadow over Sunetra’s election results. Shrinivas is not alone; his wife Sharmila and son Yugendra are also conducting village meetings in Baramati for Sule. Towards the end of the campaign, the senior Pawar’s wife Pratibha also hit the streets seeking votes for her daughter.
Baramati consists of six assembly constituencies — Khadakwasla, Bhor, Daund, Purandar, Baramati, and Indapur. The BJP represents Khadakwasla and Daund, while the Congress has MLAs in Bhor and Purandar. The NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar, has its MLAs in Baramati and Indapur. Khadakwasla is an urban constituency, a part of which falls under the Pune municipality. Others are semi-urban or rural constituencies.
Sule has won the seat thrice since 2009 and is seeking a fourth term taking over from her father who had won the seat for six terms; Ajit too won from the seat in 1991 but vacated it for his uncle within months. Since Sule’s entry into the political arena, the clear arrangement within the family was that she would be the party’s face in national politics and Ajit would look after the party’s interest in Maharashtra. With Sunetra’s candidature, the undeclared arrangement has been broken, leaving the voters divided.
“A large number of people don’t want to change this pattern. It also means they are not taking any sides and will vote for Supriya in Lok Sabha polls. But the younger generation is giving preference to Ajit as they see him as a future leader because age is on his side if compared to senior Pawar,” said a political analyst who did not want to be named.
Sunetra Pawar is no greenhorn in politics. She has been looking after the constituency in the absence of her husband who is the deputy chief minister. She also managed her husband’s campaigns and has canvassed door-to-door in the past for Sule in previous elections, and hence has a good connection with many families in the constituency.
“Whoever loses on June 4 will be a Pawar still, and that’s saddening for us,” says Amar Mahadik, a lawyer associated with NCP for several years but now finds himself, like thousands of other loyalists, having to pick sides; He said he has chosen Ajit over Pawar
“The fight in Baramati is a tough one but Supriya has an edge over Sunetra. It is because the people are not in a mood to change their pattern, which is to vote for Supriya for Lok Sabha polls and Ajit Pawar for assembly elections,” said political analyst Abhay Deshpande.
Moreover, many in the Khadakwasla assembly constituency, which seemingly will not be influenced by the split in the Pawar family, and are traditional BJP voters did not support the party’s alliance with Ajit. “It has not gone down well in Khadakwasla as they have been voting against the Pawar family for years,” a local BJP leader who did not wish to be named said.
On the last day of the election campaign ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Sharad Pawar made an emotional appeal in the family bastion saying that he would always stand by them even as his rebel nephew and deputy chief minister left no stone unturned to target him politically.
On the other hand, Ajit urged voters not to fall for all the “emotional drama.”
“This isn’t a family battle; it is about the future of the country. Don’t get caught up in the emotional drama. Baramati voters prefer development over drama. They want progress, especially for the younger generation,” he said.
The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) in its manifesto has promised a caste census, a separate commission for farmers’ welfare, the right to apprenticeship and 50% reservation for women in jobs. Titled ‘Shapatnama’, it also promised to review and propose changes to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register for Citizens (NRC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other laws “conflicting” with constitutional principles.
The Ajit Pawar-led NCP also declared its support for the demand for a caste-based census. The party in its election manifesto also promised several schemes for the minority community. It includes setting up Maulana Azad Research and Training Institute to provide minority communities opportunities for higher education, entrepreneurship and employment, giving semi-English status to Urdu medium schools, service and facility-centric policy for Haj pilgrims, education and employment opportunities for girls from the minority community among others. It also demanded Bharat Ratna for the first chief minister of Maharashtra Yashwantrao Chavan.
Faisal is with the political team and covers state administration and state politics. He also covers NCP. …view detail