Baramati Lok Sabha battle: Sharad Pawar counters Ajit with 'original' and 'outsider' comment

Ajit had recently asked people to vote for his wife Sunetra Pawar in the Lok Sabha polls.

Pune: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar on Thursday countered Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's appeal to Baramati voters to elect the "daughter-in-law of the Pawars" with an "original" versus "outsider" comment.

The Deputy CM had recently asked people to vote for his wife Sunetra Pawar in the Lok Sabha polls as they had "voted for the father (Sharad Pawar), son (himself) and daughter (sitting MP Supriya Sule)".

"This time elect the daughter-in-law (Sunetra Pawar)," the NCP leader had said at a workers' convention. Sunetra Pawar is pitted against Sule in Baramati.

Asked about the statement, Sharad Pawar said, "One is the original Pawar (referring to daughter Sule) and the other Pawar is coming from outside."

On Ajit Pawar claiming that his cousins never campaigned for him all these years, the NCP(SP) supremo said, "It is not true. Be it my election or that of Supriya or Ajit, members of the family have gone to the public and aired their views to get support."

Brushing aside the deputy CM's threat that his kin would not be able to show their faces if he opened his mouth, Sharad Pawar said, "we are not worried about it as the world knows about this person's political stand and education."