<p>Mumbai: In a coincidence for the Pawar family of Baramati, grandfather Sharad Pawar and grandnephew Parth Pawar are set to be elected to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. </p><p>They belong to different generations, different parties and diametrically opposite political camps.</p>.NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar likely to contest Rajya Sabha polls.<p>As things stand now, three members of the Pawar family will be in Parliament after the March 16 Rajya Sabha polls — NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar (85) and his daughter Supriya Sule (56), the Lok Sabha MP from Baramati, and Parth Pawar (35) of the NCP.</p><p>Parth Pawar is the elder son of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Sunetra Pawar (62) and the late Ajit Pawar (66), who died in a plane crash on 28 January 2026. </p><p>Incidentally, Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha member — and she is expected to resign in the coming days and contest the by-election for the Baramati seat which became vacant after the death of Ajit Pawar, an eight-term MLA and six-time Deputy Chief Minister.</p>.Ajit Pawar plane crash | Report is cover up by DGCA, AAIB: Rohit Pawar.<p>The biennial elections for the seven Rajya Sabha seats — for which the electoral college is the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly — will be unopposed. While the BJP-led Maha Yuti-NDA secured six berths, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), part of the Congress-led INDIA opposition bloc, managed one seat.</p><p>After a series of meetings, the MVA comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) decided to field Pawar, the architect of the marquee opposition alliance who had been a four-term Maharashtra Chief Minister and three-time Union minister, having handled the portfolios of Defence and Agriculture.</p><p>Pawar, who recently completed 60 years in public life, is a six-time MLA from Baramati, one-time MLC, five-term Lok Sabha member — four times from Baramati and once from Madha — and a two-term Rajya Sabha member. Pawar also served as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. He is among the rare politicians who have served in all four law-making bodies.</p><p>This would be the third term for Pawar (85), popularly known as Saheb, who is the NCP (SP) chief. His candidature was approved following discussions with Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and the state Congress leadership, who too had staked claim. However, Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Khargeand the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha asked the state unit to back Pawar.</p><p>From the Maha Yuti camp, the NCP fielded Parth Pawar, who takes keen interest in politics, had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Maval but lost by over two lakh votes to the undivided Shiv Sena candidate Shrirang Barne. Since 2023, after the NCP split, he has participated in higher-level decision-making within the party.</p><p>The Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had several aspirants, but sprang a surprise by fielding Prof Dr Jyoti Waghmare, an active face of the Ambedkarite movement in Solapur. Her father Nagnath Waghmare was a Dalit Panther activist. Dr Waghmare is proficient in Marathi, Hindi, English, Telugu and Kannada. With the aim of using higher education for social awareness, she has delivered lectures in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on the lives and ideas of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Mahatma Basaveshwar.</p><p>The BJP, which leads the ruling Maha Yuti, fielded BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde, a Maratha face; eminent tribal leader Maya Chintaman Ivnate, a former member of the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes and former Nagpur Mayor; and Ramrao Wadkute, a former MLC who hails from the Dhangar community. </p><p>Tawde, a former MLA and ex-minister, was denied a ticket in 2019 and subsequently inducted into BJP's party work. He is making an electoral comeback. </p><p>Besides, the BJP will also back prominent Dalit leader and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale (66), president of the Republican Party of India (Athawale), giving him another term. He started as an MLC and won three Lok Sabha polls from Maharashtra - twice from Pandharpur and once from Mumbai North Central and this will be his third Rajya Sabha term. </p>
<p>Mumbai: In a coincidence for the Pawar family of Baramati, grandfather Sharad Pawar and grandnephew Parth Pawar are set to be elected to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. </p><p>They belong to different generations, different parties and diametrically opposite political camps.</p>.NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar likely to contest Rajya Sabha polls.<p>As things stand now, three members of the Pawar family will be in Parliament after the March 16 Rajya Sabha polls — NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar (85) and his daughter Supriya Sule (56), the Lok Sabha MP from Baramati, and Parth Pawar (35) of the NCP.</p><p>Parth Pawar is the elder son of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Sunetra Pawar (62) and the late Ajit Pawar (66), who died in a plane crash on 28 January 2026. </p><p>Incidentally, Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha member — and she is expected to resign in the coming days and contest the by-election for the Baramati seat which became vacant after the death of Ajit Pawar, an eight-term MLA and six-time Deputy Chief Minister.</p>.Ajit Pawar plane crash | Report is cover up by DGCA, AAIB: Rohit Pawar.<p>The biennial elections for the seven Rajya Sabha seats — for which the electoral college is the 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly — will be unopposed. While the BJP-led Maha Yuti-NDA secured six berths, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), part of the Congress-led INDIA opposition bloc, managed one seat.</p><p>After a series of meetings, the MVA comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) decided to field Pawar, the architect of the marquee opposition alliance who had been a four-term Maharashtra Chief Minister and three-time Union minister, having handled the portfolios of Defence and Agriculture.</p><p>Pawar, who recently completed 60 years in public life, is a six-time MLA from Baramati, one-time MLC, five-term Lok Sabha member — four times from Baramati and once from Madha — and a two-term Rajya Sabha member. Pawar also served as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council. He is among the rare politicians who have served in all four law-making bodies.</p><p>This would be the third term for Pawar (85), popularly known as Saheb, who is the NCP (SP) chief. His candidature was approved following discussions with Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and the state Congress leadership, who too had staked claim. However, Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Khargeand the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha asked the state unit to back Pawar.</p><p>From the Maha Yuti camp, the NCP fielded Parth Pawar, who takes keen interest in politics, had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Maval but lost by over two lakh votes to the undivided Shiv Sena candidate Shrirang Barne. Since 2023, after the NCP split, he has participated in higher-level decision-making within the party.</p><p>The Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had several aspirants, but sprang a surprise by fielding Prof Dr Jyoti Waghmare, an active face of the Ambedkarite movement in Solapur. Her father Nagnath Waghmare was a Dalit Panther activist. Dr Waghmare is proficient in Marathi, Hindi, English, Telugu and Kannada. With the aim of using higher education for social awareness, she has delivered lectures in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on the lives and ideas of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Mahatma Basaveshwar.</p><p>The BJP, which leads the ruling Maha Yuti, fielded BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde, a Maratha face; eminent tribal leader Maya Chintaman Ivnate, a former member of the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes and former Nagpur Mayor; and Ramrao Wadkute, a former MLC who hails from the Dhangar community. </p><p>Tawde, a former MLA and ex-minister, was denied a ticket in 2019 and subsequently inducted into BJP's party work. He is making an electoral comeback. </p><p>Besides, the BJP will also back prominent Dalit leader and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale (66), president of the Republican Party of India (Athawale), giving him another term. He started as an MLC and won three Lok Sabha polls from Maharashtra - twice from Pandharpur and once from Mumbai North Central and this will be his third Rajya Sabha term. </p>