Supriya Sule springs a surprise, visits Ajit Pawar’s family home amid voting in Baramati
Baramati MP Supriya Sule said she visited Ajit Pawar’s family home to meet his mother, her aunt. The BJP and NCP were quick to dismiss the visit as an ‘emotional tactic’ and a bid to ‘confuse voters’.
Supriya Sule springs a suprise, visits Ajit Pawar's family home amid voting in Baramati. (Express Photo)
Lending a twist to the high-voltage and bitter fight for the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra on polling day, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate and sitting MP Supriya Sule on Tuesday sprung a surprise by visiting the family home of her estranged cousin and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Katewadi. The BJP and the NCP were quick to dismiss the visit as an “emotional tactic” and a bid to “confuse voters”.
While Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra, who is contesting against Sule, were not present at the residence, Sule met her aunt and Ajit’s mother Ashatai Pawar. “I had come to meet my kaaki (aunt) and not anyone else. It is our house…The house belongs to my kaaki and kaaka (uncle) and I have been coming here regularly. I met my kaaki and took her blessings,” Sule said after spending a few minutes at the residence.
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Sule’s close associates said she enquired about Ashatai’s health and both looked at ease.
Sule’s visit to Ajit Pawar’s family home assumes significance as two days ago, Ajit’s elder brother Shriniwas Pawar had mentioned to a TV channel that Ashatai was upset with Ajit and had left his residence.
Commenting on Sule’s visit, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Both Ajit Pawar and Sule are siblings, they are not enemies and there was nothing to object about her visit…But it is clearly an emotional tactic.”
“I have just learnt from the media that Supriya Sule had visited the family home of Ajit Pawar. Ashatai has been at his residence for the last one-and-a-half months. It is an attempt to confuse the voters,” NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari said.
As Baramati went to polls on Tuesday, Ajit Pawar too tried to make a strong statement by arriving at the Katewadi Zilla Parishad school polling centre with his wife Sunetra and mother Ashatai, who was otherwise absent throughout the campaigning period. Ajit Pawar held her hand and led her to the polling booth. “It was an attempt to show that his mother was very much staying with him and was not upset,” an NCP leader said. Mobbed by the media, it nearly took 10 minutes for Ajit Pawar to cast his vote.
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NCP (SP) national president Sharad Pawar and his daughter Sule arrived at the Malegaon polling booth, which is outside the limits of the Baramati municipal council, at around 9 am to cast their votes. Pawar, who was advised a day’s rest, cast his vote and left without speaking to the media. Sule and other family members then voted at the Remand Home polling centre where she was mobbed by the media.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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