It's official now. Baramati will witness a contest between uncle and nephew. Unlike in the past when uncle Sharad Pawar blessed his nephew Ajit Pawar in elections, this time it will be Ajit Pawar versus Yugendra Pawar.
Yugendra has been given the ticket by NCP Sharad Pawar to contest from Baramati against Ajit, who will be the NCP candidate. Speculation about Yugendra being given a ticket had begun right at the time of Lok Sabha polls when Ajit fielded his wife Sunetra against Supriya Sule in the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.
Yugendra is the son of Ajit Pawar’s younger brother Srinivas Pawar and he has been working in the constituency since Lok Sabha elections. He has studied business management in Boston and is on the board of ‘Vidya Pratishthan’, an educational institute empire founded by Sharad Pawar.
According to reports, NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil expressed confidence that the result in Baramati will be different this time as people demanded a young and fresh candidate.
NCP (SP) on Thursday released a list of 45 candidates which included party veterans like Jayant Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Jitendra Awhad, and Rajendra Shingne, who recently returned from NCP Ajit Pawar faction to NCP (SP).
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of which NCP (SP) is a part, has agreed to 85 seats each for all its main constituents- Congress, UBT Shiv Sena and NCP (SP). The discussions for the remaining 33 seats are still on.
In another interesting development, Bhgyashree Atram, daughter of NCP Ajit Pawar faction minister Dharmarao Atram, has been given a ticket by Sharad Pawar-led NCP to contest against father from Aheri in Gadchiroli district.