Newsmaker | On Pawar turf, another scion rises, Ajit’s potential rival: Who is Yugendra Pawar?

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.

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