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Journalism of Courage
Politics is heating up in Baramati lok sabha constituency even before the declaration of Lok Sabha elections. Yugendra Pawar, grand nephew of veteran leader Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar’s nephew, is making his presence felt in political field. Yugendra is part of the third generation of Pawar family trying to make it in politics.
Yugendra is son of Shrinivas Pawar, brother of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and has been close to veteran Sharad Pawar. He is the Treasurer of Vidya Pratishtan, educational institute founded by Sharad Pawar and also heads the Baramati Taluka Kustigir Parishad.
He did his schooling in Mumbai and Pune and later went abroad for higher education studying Finance and Insurance from North Eastern University in Boston. Yugvendra later joined business of his father is Director in Sharayu Group of companies which is into logistics, automobile dealerships, agricultural industries, security services and real estate.
Yugendra have been involved in social work in Baramati through Sharayu Foundation. The foundation recently organised half marathon in Baramati and Yugendra, through Baramati Taluka Kustigir Parishad he heads, had organised wrestling competition in Baramati on birthday of Sharad Pawar in December last year.
On Wednesday he visited the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder’s office in Baramati and expressed solidarity with senior Pawar.
His visit came days after Ajit Pawar’s remark that he was being “isolated” in the Pawar family for joining hands with the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. Though Yugendra’s visit triggered speculation about him joining politics, he remained non-committal.
“I have not taken any decision to join politics. I heard about the new office of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), so I decided to visit it. It was also to extend solidarity to the veteran political leader Sharad Pawar, the head of the Pawar family,” said Yugendra.
“I will do whatever my grand uncle (Sharad Pawar) asks me. I will campaign for any candidate he wants me to campaign for,” said Yugvendra, adding he has been doing a lot of social work in Baramati and spends a lot of time with local citizens.
On his uncle Ajit Pawar’s claims of being “isolated”, Yugendra said, “I don’t think so. No one was isolating the uncle in the family. In fact, Sharad Pawar has always kept politics and family separately.”
Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar said he was not aware of Yugendra’s visit to the party office in Baramati. “I only know that he is a highly educated member of the Pawar family who returned from abroad and is doing well in business. His expressing his stand should not be read as his entry into politics,” said Sharad Pawar.
Sule also said that Yugvendra is a talented and highly educated young member of the Pawar family. “I don’t want people to drag members of the Pawar family into politics,” she said.
