MUMBAI: While filing his nomination from the Baramati constituency in Maharashtra for the Assembly polls, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar on Monday said that in the recent Lok Sabha elections, he made a mistake by fielding his spouse against his sister Supriya Sule. “But the same mistake should not have been made by Sharad Pawar by asking Yugendra Pawar to file his papers against him.
Yugendra is the grandnephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and son of Sriniwas Pawar and nephew of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
Baramati will witness a high-voltage Pawar-versus-Pawar drama like in the Lok Sabha elections. Ajit Pawar’s spouse Sunetra Pawar lost the election against Supriya by over 1,50,000 votes. In the Baramati segment, Supriya got the lead of over 58,000 votes, in a constituency from where Ajit Pawar had been elected MLA seven times.
Ajit Pawar got emotional while speaking at Baramati. He said it is true that the family should not be divided. “I have accepted my mistake several times. People who are sitting here also voted for Supriya because it was said in Baramati that they would vote for Supriya for Lok Sabha while voting for me in the assembly. So, people of Baramati should stand with the people who are doing development, not politics,” said the NCP leader.
He said his mother also told Yugendra Pawar and other family members, that they should not field Yugendra against him, but no one listened to her. It was Sharad Pawar who prompted Yungendra to contest the elections.
Meanwhile, the personal assistant of Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has found a place in the BJP’s third list of 24 candidates for the Maharashtra assembly elections. Defectors, too, are given an opportunity to contest the election.
The party has so far declared 148 candidates which include 99 in the first list, 22 in the second and 25 in the latest list. It also handed out four seats that are allocated to smaller allies. That means the BJP and its smaller allies have 152 constituencies out of the total 288.
The third list reveals that the party has denied the ticket to three sitting MLAs — Sandeep Durve from Arni, Vikas Khumbhare from Nagpur-Central, and Dadarao Keche from the Aarvi seat.
The party also nominated defectors: Dr Archana Patil Chakurkar from Latur (she left Congress and joined BJP ahead of the recent Lok Sabha polls), Ashish Deshmukh, the Congress leader who recently joined BJPand is fielded from Savner, besides Jitesh Antapurkar who recently left Congress and joined BJP.
Sumit Wankhede, the personal assistant of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, has been fielded from Aarvi. Wankedhe is the second PA of Devendra Fadnavis who has been fielded. Earlier Abhimannu Pawar was fielded from Latur and was elected in the 2019 assembly and re-nominated in this election.
Wankedhe was a mechanical engineer who also did a political strategy course at MIT in Pune. He joined the fellowship service when Fadnavis was leader of the Oppositions. Both are seen as good friends. BJP has forced its allies, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP, to accommodate its leaders.
Raut warns Congress over Solapur South seat
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Monday warned Congress about fielding a candidate for the Solapur South assembly seat, for which his party has already announced a nominee. Speaking to the media, Raut said such actions could provoke a similar response from their side and create “problems” for the opposition MVA.
