Daughter in tough contest, Sharad Pawar taps friends to rivals to clear her way

With his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule possibly facing her toughest electoral challenge yet to retain her Lok Sabha constituency, Sharad Pawar is lending his formidable shoulder to efforts to retain the constituency that has been held by a Pawar family member or a close associate for more than three decades.

For Sule, the challenge this time is in-house, with cousin Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra among the probable rivals. The NCP is itself depleted following a split led by Ajit last year.

Sharad Pawar first won from Baramati in 1984. In 1991, Ajit, then his favoured protégé, won back the constituency and later vacated it to accommodate his uncle. Save for a couple of years that Pawar’s close associate Bapusaheb Thite represented the seat in Parliament, since 1996, Baramati has been represented first by Pawar and then Supriya, who has been the MP since 2009.

Now, with the NCP having split and Ajit, the Deputy CM, has taken to intensive campaigning to defeat Sule with the help of the BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.

To help his daughter, Sharad Pawar has started reaching out to his old associates, rivals, and various communities in Baramati. Last Saturday, Pawar visited the home of his long-time rival Anantrao Thopte in Bhor before attending a public rally organised by Congress MLA and Anantrao’s son Sangram Thopte in support of Sule. At the event, Pawar announced Sule’s candidature and also assured Thopte that “whatever he does for Bhor, Pune district, state or country will get Sharad Pawar support”. “We may have been on different paths earlier,” Pawar said.

At the meeting with Anantrao, other senior Congress leaders such as Balasaheb Thorat and Nana Navale were also present. In January, Pawar shared the dais with BJP