NCP AP Faction Crisis Open Amid Baramati By-Poll Elections

Mumbai, Maharashtra: On April 6, Deputy CM of Maharashtra Sunetra Pawar filed her nomination for the Baramati by-poll elections. After the death of Ajit Pawar, his wife and now Deputy CM of Maharashtra has taken charge of the vacant post and also as the President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - Ajit Pawar faction. But now, Maharashtra politics seem to be getting dirty as the Baramati by-poll election is round the corner. Elections that were supposed to be unopposed, it took a sharp turn when INC (Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance) gave ticket to Ashok More to contest against Suntera Pawar.  

When the NCP - Sharad Pawar faction openly supported the unopposed elections, their important alliance gave a candidate to contest against Suntera Pawar. But how well did Sunetra Pawar play? During the campaign, Sunetra Pawar, on her banners and in her speeches mentioned about Sharad Pawar which sharply indicated that Baramati belonged to the “Pawars” and it will continue to. In short, it was a clear message that Baramati is equal to Pawars and Pawars are equal to Baramati. 

But now, Parth Pawar, newly elected Rajya Sabha MP and son of Ajit and Sunetra Pawar has become a target of his own family members from another faction and as well as the opposition.  

When a candidate from INC was given a ticket to contest against Sunetra Pawar, he strongly asserted winning of the elections and the “downfall of INC in Maharashtra Politics.” His own aunt and MP Supriya Sule took a jibe at Parth Pawar by saying that, “We got freedom when INC was in power, under the guidance of Manmohan Singh and Narsimha Rao we got good financial policies; In democracy everyone has a right to speak, so let anyone say what they want to.” 

On  the other, NCP SP supremo Sharad Pawar stated that, INC did a right thing by giving a candidate for contesting by-poll elections in Baramati. This indicates towards family disagreements too! 

Though the nomination is being filed by Sunetra Pawar, there is a string crisis within the NCP AP faction as Sunil Tatkare, MP and senior leader of the faction and Praful Patel are walking on different paths which clearly shows the internal disagreements. It started back then when it was just past 2-3 days that Ajit Pawar had died and these two SENIOR LEADERS of the faction rushed to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis. 

That meet sparked many speculations and to the continuation of the same, a month later a letter was issued by Sunetra Pawar to the Election Commission clearly stating that, “Whatever decisions are taken before acquiring the position are nullified.” This letter to ECI became the talk of the town. Later, this disagreements were clearly visible as in Indapur, Baramati during a program, banners displayed by Sunil Tatkare didn’t display photos of Ajit Pawar nor Suntera Pawar. Such a move is really not appreciated in politics! 

After all this scenario, INC giving a candidate against Sunetra Pawar, Sharad Pawar backing up the decision, Parth Pawar gets targeted over his statement against INC and its downfall, family disagreements and lastly NCP AP internal rifts, what will be results of Baramati by-poll elections? Will all these factors affect the results?