Baramati town in Maharashtra’s Pune district - the bastion of Sharad Pawar and family - has now become a point of tussle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
While the Pawars, who have been responsible for the transformation of town, have controlled Baramati politics for more than five decades now, the BJP is set to challenge the Pawars, and in turn the NCP, to wrest the stronghold out of the Pawars’ hand.
On Tuesday, the newly appointed state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule visited Baramati, ahead of the September 22-24 visit by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Sitharaman is expected to visit all state Assembly segments of Baramati Lok Sabha seat—Indapur, Bhor, Daund, Khadakwasla, Purander and Baramati.
“There would be ‘visarjan’ (ceremonial immersion) of NCP…in the next elections to Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha,” Bawankule told BJP cadres and workers in Baramati to boost their morale.
“The party has identified around 144 seats where we need to concentrate and 16 of them are in Maharashtra. Baramati is among these,” BJP leader Harshavardhan Patil said. He also clarified that BJP state president’s visit to the contentious town is to strengthen the party.
The NCP, however, reacted sharply to BJP’s claim, with chief party spokesperson Mahesh Tapase saying that their “dream will never see the light of the day”.
“Leaders of the BJP are known to make rhetorical statements to grab media attention and hence this statement of Bawankule should not be taken seriously,” said Tapase.
“It will be interesting to see how Sitharaman who has never won any Lok Sabha election will campaign against Supriya Sule,” he said. “Supriya Sule is known more as a social leader and her contribution to the Baramati Lok Sabha seat is well recognised. She has been bestowed upon with the prestigious Sansad Ratna award seven times till now. She was honoured as the Sansad Maharatna in the 16th Lok Sabha and as Sansad Vishishtha Ratna in the 17th Lok Sabha.”
“Does Bawankule know that all this has happened during the Modi government?,” Tapase retorted saying that Bawankule should try to find the BJP MPs from Maharashtra who “have repeatedly been accorded the same honour for their Parliamentary performance.”
Sule, who is NCP supremo Pawar’s daughter, represents the Baramati Lok Sabha seat. Her cousin Ajit Pawar represents the seat in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Ajit is a four-time former Deputy Chief Minister and currently the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.
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