Ex-Purandar MLA Ashok Tekawade joins BJP in jolt to NCP on Pawars’ home turf

Tekawade was considered as close to NCP leader Ajit Pawar and played a major role in mobilising votes for Sule from Purandar, which is part of the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency.

Incidentally, the BJP is on a mission mode to win Baramati and its senior leaders such as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman have recently visited the constituency to strengthen the party’s base ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections. The BJP leaders have alleged that the NCP has done injustice to the constituency on various fronts.

BJP leaders have said in the past that if the party could defeat Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, defeating Sule in Baramati would not be impossible. “The Baramati Lok Sabha constituency is on our list of seats that the party wants to win at any cost. We will work hard to win the seat,” said a BJP leader.

The BJP’s intense efforts in Baramati have also made Sule put in extra efforts to reach out to the voters. BJP leaders claim that it is because of their efforts that Sule has become very active in her constituency.

The Purandar Assembly seat is represented by Sanjay Jagtap of the Congress, who is close to the Pawar family. He had defeated former minister Vijay Shivtare of the Shiv Sena. Shivtare left the Shiv Sena (UBT) to join Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.

As there had been speculations of Tekawade joining the BJP, Ajit Pawar recently said the former MLA had differences with the local NCP leadership in Purandar and that the efforts to resolve them did not yield results. “I have also learnt that Tekawade was served a notice by the income tax department, which may be one of the reasons for him to join the BJP,” the NCP leader had said.