BJP ploy to ‘finish off’ Sharad: Supriya on battle for Baramati

Nagpur, March 31

Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule on Sunday levelled a serious charge against the BJP by claiming that the electoral fight between her and her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar in their home turf of Baramati, was a ploy to politically “finish off” NCP founder Sharad Pawar. Sunetra is wife of her cousin and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

Speaking in Baramati, Sule, a three-time MP, said that the intra-family duel in the Lok Sabha poll would not waver her respect for Sunetra Pawar as she was her “elder brother’s wife and like a mother”.

The Pawar-versus-Pawar contest is a result of a split in the original NCP last year when Ajit Pawar sided with the ruling BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena along with his loyalist MLAs.

“So this ploy (to pit Sunetra against Sule) is against the Pawar family and Maharashtra. The BJP wants to finish off Pawar Saheb. I am not saying this. A senior BJP leader made such a remark after visiting Baramati,” Sule said.

Baramati goes to polls in the third phase on May 7.

The Baramati constituency in Pune district comprising Baramati, Indapur, Daund, Purandar, Bhor and Khadakwasla Assembly segments has been a bastion of Sharad Pawar since the 1960s.

Ajit Pawar has been an MLA from Baramati since 1991, with his victory in 2019 being among the most crushing in the state’s poll history.

It was Ajit Pawar, the sitting MLA from the Baramati Assembly segment, who used to play a key role in Sule’s victory in the past electiosn by ensuring that the vote bank of the Pawars remained unaffected.