Pune: Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday endorsed his grandson Yugendra Pawar from Baramati, and NCP president and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar accused his uncle of engineering the split in the family, as the high-profile constituency braced. for another pitched face-off ahead of the assembly elections next month.
Sharad and Ajit, his nephew, descended in Baramati, where the former sought the people’s support for Yugendra, who he said would herald “the new generation’s leadership”, and the latter filed his nomination for the polls.
“Today, we came here to file the nomination of Yugendra Pawar, a young candidate from Baramati. He has studied abroad, is highly educated, and is accustomed to the administration and sugar-related business. The party has given an opportunity to a youngster,” Sharad told reporters.
“I am sure that the people of Baramati will accept this new generation and new leadership and will throw their might behind him,” he added.
The NCP (SP) chief said he came to file his nomination papers 57 years ago, and since then, people of the constituency have elected him regularly. “This happens because there is a bond with the people of Baramati. My suggestion to all the young candidates is to keep the bond with people intact, be humble and accept the mandate with humility,” he said.
The battle for Baramati in the assembly elections will be a replay of sorts of the Lok Sabha contest, when Sharad’s daughter Supriya Sule defeated Ajit’s wife Sunetra Pawar by 158,000 votes. Yugendra is the son of Shrinivas Pawar, the younger brother of Ajit.
Sule said Yugendra’s nomination was a good thing for the party to get rejuvenated as it would help them create a balance of new ideas and deep experiences.
“Lots of new fresh faces are coming, it is a good thing for the party to get rejuvenated. Yugendra is my child. It is wonderful for me that our children are trying to do something. You have to take everything in stride because it was never a personal fight for me. It is an ideological fight,” she said.
Addressing a rally after filing his nomination papers during the day, Ajit emphasized he had accepted his mistake of fielding his wife Sunetra against Sule in the general elections.
“I previously admitted to making a mistake, but it seems like others are now making errors too. My family and I had agreed to file the form in Baramati first, but that didn’t happen. Despite the challenges, we managed to improve the situation. My mother has been very supportive, and she even advised that they should not nominate anyone against Ajit Pawar,” he said.
“However, I was told that Saheb (Sharad Pawar) instructed someone to file a nomination against me…. Saheb created the split within the family… I just want to say that politics should not be brought to such a low level. , because it took the generations to be united and it doesn’t take a single moment to break the family..,” he added.
To be sure, Ajit split the NCP, which was founded by Sharad, in July 2023, after he and some MLAs parted ways and joined the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Ajit took oath as deputy chief minister alongside eight other loyalist lawmakers who took charge as ministers.
Shrinivas refuted claims that their mother had made any such statement (on not wanting Yugendra to fight the deputy chief minister). “I don’t know why Ajit dada made this statement. There was no discussion about Pawar Saheb. For our mother, both Ajit dada and her grandson Yugendra are the same. I do not think our mother will make such a statement,” he said.
