Baramati, seen as one of the hotspots of Maharashtra's politics, witnesses a second round of electoral clash within the Pawar family. In the Nov. 20 polls, the battle line is drawn between Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his nephew Yugendra Pawar, who has been fielded by the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Ajit Pawar, 65, heads the NCP faction—backed by the majority of its incumbent legislators—which is aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mayahuti alliance. He has been representing the Baramati assembly seat since 1991.
Ajit Pawar's challenger, Yugendra Pawar, is also his nephew. The 32-year-old is backed by Sharad Pawar, who is Ajit Pawar's uncle and the founder of the undivided NCP.
The Ajit Pawar versus Yugendra Pawar comes barely six months after Supriya Sule, the daughter of Sharad Pawar, defeated Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar from Baramati in the high-stake Lok Sabha election.
The Baramati poll contest draws focus on Ajit's political stature in Maharashtra politics. His career began in the early 1980s, and the over the years, rose to hold several key positions. He has held several prominent roles, including multiple terms as deputy chief minister and headed key ministries like agriculture, power, and planning.
Supporters of Ajit Pawar see him as a political leader making pragmatic choices to drive the state's development. However, the accusations related to the state irrigation scam, which emerged in 2012, affected his image, critics say. He was cleared of the charges by the state Anti-Corruption Bureau in December 2019.
Ajit Pawar's political decisions have also come under cloud, as he entered into a brief alliance with the BJP in 2019 to form the government. The alliance lasted barely a few days, as he joined forces with the Maha Vikas Aghadi to support the formation of a government headed by Uddhav Thackeray.
In July last year, Ajit, along with a bulk of NCP MLAs, parted ways with party supremo Sharad Pawar and allied with the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena, headed by Eknath Shinde. In the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, the NCP headed by him was reduced to just one seat, whereas the Sharad Pawar-led faction bagged eight parliamentary constituencies.
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