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Journalism of Courage
After the battle of Pawars for the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, another one could be on the cards. This time, for the Baramati Assembly seat.
While Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra lost the parliamentary election to incumbent MP Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Sharad Pawar, later this year Ajit may face a challenge from his nephew. The supporters of his 33-year-old nephew Yugendra Pawar who helped Supriya get a lead from the Baramati Assembly segment want the NCP (SP) to field him in the Assembly elections against Ajit who has been winning the seat since 1991.
Yugendra is the son of Ajit’s younger brother Shrinivas who is an industrialist. That he had an effect is apparent from the poll outcome in Baramati this time. In the 2019 Assembly elections, Ajit won the constituency by 1.95 lakh votes. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Sunetra managed to poll only 96,000 votes. In comparison, Sule bagged 1.44 lakh votes.
Yugendra who has been involved in social work through the family-run Sharayu Foundation has built a network of supporters in Baramati town over time. He is the trustee and treasurer of Vidya Pratishthan, an educational institution founded by Sharad Pawar and also heads the Baramati Taluka Kustigir Parishad, through which he organised a wrestling competition in Baramati on Pawar’s birthday in December 2023.
Yugendra is a director and the CEO of Phaltan-based Sharayu Agro India Ltd that runs the Sharayu Sugar factory and has been promoting organic and sustainable farming through the Maharashtra Organic Residue Free Farmers Association (MORFA), which he founded by bringing together farmers under his granduncle’s guidance.
“I have been working in Baramati taluka and have a lot to learn. I was very active in the taluka during the Lok Sabha elections, as the NCP(SP) chief’s ideology was being challenged. I’ll continue to do so whenever such challenges come up, but I haven’t given any thought to fighting polls,” said the 33-year-old.
Yugendra is known as an approachable leader and is frequently found in the NCP (SP) office in Baramati town where he meets people of the area and helps address their concerns, according to party insiders. Till the Lok Sabha polls, Yugendra was not much known in political circles though he had been working in Baramati and its neighbouring areas in the fields of education, culture, health, sports, agriculture and irrigation. Through the Sharayu Foundation, he had wells dug for farmers free of cost and also provided water tanker service to drought-prone areas of Baramati town. He is currently accompanying Pawar on a tour of the town’s drought-affected areas.
Yugendra did his schooling in Mumbai and holds a degree in finance and insurance from Boston, USA. He later joined his father’s business as a director of the Sharayu Group of companies, which is into logistics, automobile dealerships, agro-based industries, security services, and real estate.
During the Lok Sabha elections, Sule was heard praising Yugendra as a talented and highly-educated young member of the Pawar family. When asked about his supporters’ demand that he contest elections, Yugendra said, “Excited by our Lok Sabha performance, the cadre requested the NCP(SP) chief to make me a candidate from Baramati Assembly. But we don’t want a tussle within the Pawar family and hope the situation changes for the better before the Assembly polls.”
But when asked if he would contest if Pawar directed him to, he said, “I will take up whatever responsibility is entrusted upon me by my granduncle.”
