Ajit Pawar faces nephew Yugendra as the NCP braces for a fresh political showdown amid deepening family rifts
Yugendra Pawar at NCP-SP campaign in Baramati during LS polls this year. Pic/Anurag Ahire
A political hotbed of Baramati is bracing up for yet another family feud. This time around, Ajit Pawar has been challenged by his nephew Yugendra Pawar, who was named officially by the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) that announced a 45-candidate list on Thursday evening.
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Ajit leads a rebel faction of the NCP, and Yugendra is with granduncle Sharad Pawar’s faction. The family split post the party split in 2023, and a year later the Pawars witnessed an electoral fight between the members, who till then vouched for their unity. Yugendra and his father Shriniwas, who is Ajit’s brother, remained with Pawar senior. The rest of the family campaigned against Ajit’s wife Sunetra who contested the Baramati Lok Sabha seat against sister-in-law Supriya Sule.
“I thank Pawar Saheb. I will try my best to live up to expectations,” Yugendra told the media persons in Baramati, adding that he had a multi-point agenda to work on. He indirectly suggested that his candidature against his uncle was a direct fall-out of what had happened in the Lok Sabha turf of Baramati.
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar during a press conference in August. File pic/Atul Kamble
In another intra-family fight, Bhagyashree Atram has been put against her minister father Dharmarao Baba Atram (Ahire), who is with Ajit Pawar’s faction. Rakhi Jadhav has been named for Mumbai’s Ghatkopar East. In Belapur, BJP’s Manda Mhatre has a rival in her party colleague Ganesh Naik’s son Sandeep Naik, who entered the NCP a couple of days ago.
Yugendra Pawar’s cousin and sitting MLA, Rohit Pawar, will again be taking on BJP’s Ram Shinde in Karjat Jamkhed. Rohit made his Assembly debut in 2019 beating Shinde, then a Cabinet minister. Former deputy CM, late RR Patil’s son Rohit has made his debut from Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal. He replaced his mother who represented the constituency after her husband’s death.
Senior NCP leader Eknath Khadse’s daughter Rohini Khadse will attempt revenge in Muktainagar where she was beaten by an independent (now with Shinde Sena)in 2019. Both father and daughter were in the BJP then. Ahmednagar MP Nilesh Lanke’s wife Rani Lanke will hold the fort in Parner which was with her husband, who had left Ajit Pawar before Lok Sabha elections.
The Pawar faction has retained the ex-ministers and MLAs, who sided with it since the party split and came back after being with Ajit for a year or so. NCP-SP’s state president Jayant Patil (Islampur), Anil Deshmukh (Katol), Rajesh Tope (Ghansawangi), Balasaheb Patil (Karad), Jitendra Awhad (Kalwa-Mumbra), Shashikant Shinde (Koregaon), Jayprakash Dandegaonkar (Basmat), Gulabrao Deokar (Jalgaon Rural), Harshvardhan Patil (Indapur), Prajakt Tanpure (Rahuri), Ashok Pawar (Shirur), Mansingh Pawar (Shirala), Sunil Bhusara (Vikramgad) and others were among 45 nominees. Mahebub Shaikh, the president of the party’s youth wing, who has been defending the party very aggressively, will be fighting from Ashti in central Maharashtra.
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