With the Lok Sabha polls just round the corner, the raging battle between Pawars has reached their home turf – Baramati in Maharashtra's Pune district. The Baramati Lok Sabha seat is currently represented by Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP founder Sharad Pawar. Recently, a publicity campaign has been launched in the constituency, with Sunetra Pawar, the wife of rebel NCP faction leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, making the rounds to meet local party leaders and cadre. A vehicle bearing an audio visual public address system and photographs of Sunetra and Ajit has also been moving around, raising speculation about Sunetra being pitted against Sule, who is her sister-in-law, in the coming polls. State NCP chief Sunil Tatkare also indicated that Sunetra might be fielded. "There is a demand and wish of party workers from Baramati to get Sunetra Pawar elected to the Lok Sabha. She has been doing social work in the constituency for long and has been helping her husband handle the responsibility of the area. However, the final decision has to be taken," he said. The Baramati seat has been a Pawar family bastion, with Sharad Pawar himself winning the seat six times. Ajit also won the seat in 1991. As Ajit gears up for the Lok Sabha polls for the first time after splitting the party last July, this seat is going to be critical for him. The BJP has also identified Baramati as one of the 16 “difficult” seats in Maharashtra. This is the seat the ruling Shinde Sena-BJP- Ajit NCP coalition would hope to wrest from the Pawar NCP. Behind-the scenes role Sunetra, 60, was born into a political family from the Dharashiv district. She is the sister of former state minister and Lok Sabha MP Padamsinh Patil, who is a close confidant of Sharad Pawar. Patil had also played a significant role in establishing the NCP along with Pawar in 1999. Patil’s son Ranajagjitsinha Patil is currently BJP MLA from Tuljapur in Dharashiv district. Sunetra has never contested an election earlier, but she has remained active in campaigning for her husband in the Baramati Assembly seat in the state polls. She had been also engaged in social work. She has been working in rural development since 2008 and has founded an NGO called the Environmental Forum of India in 2010. She has also been a member of the France-based World Entrepreneurship Forum since 2011. Sunetra has served as the chairperson of the Baramati Hi-Tech Textile Park Ltd, a multimodal garment manufacturer’s park under the central government, since 2006. She is also a board member of the Vidya Pratishthan Trust founded by Sharad Pawar. The Ajit Pawar led NCP is now showcasing her social work before the voters in Baramati. On Friday, addressing his party workers in Baramati, Ajit said he would declare a suitable candidate for the Baramati constituency. “I am going to put up a candidate in Baramati because we want to be part of the ruling alliance to enable development work in the constituency. It is clear that Narendra Modi will become the Prime Minister for the third time from the way he has got the Ram Mandir constructed and carried out development work across the country,” he said, adding that the party cadre “should reach out to voters and tell them that my candidate will do more work than the MP ( Sule)”. A party leader said Sunetra was the force behind getting her elder son Parth Pawar to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Maval in 2019. Parth’s candidature had been an issue between Pawar and Ajit, leading to friction between the uncle and nephew. The decision to field Parth came at the cost of Pawar withdrawing from the race as the latter was said to be keen that not more than two members of his family should contest the elections. Parth lost the seat with a margin of over two lakh votes. Sunetra, an NCP leader said, had also played a role in the surprise swearing-in of Ajit as the Deputy CM in November 2019, alongside Devendra Fadnavis as CM. He resigned within days, with Pawar then managing to stop a split in the party. The situation, however, flared up again last July when Ajit, along with many party leaders, joined the ruling alliance of the BJP and the Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde. While Ajit is referred to as “Dada (brother)” by his followers, Sunetra is called “Vahini (sister-in-law)”.
