Sunetra Pawar: ‘Contesting LS polls as it is my duty to stand for my husband (Ajit Pawar) … family will continue the way it is’

Making her debut in electoral politics, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP’s Baramati candidate Sunetra Pawar said it was her duty towards husband, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar that made her contest the election. She is taking on family member and sitting MP Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and winner of the past three Lok Sabha elections, in the Pawar bastion.

“It is my duty to stand for my husband in the current political situation. Thus, I am contesting the Lok Sabha election and am confident of winning it,” she told The Indian Express when asked what made her change her earlier publicly-declared stance of never wanting to enter politics.

The Deputy Chief Minister has taken a decision to join the NDA and it has the support of around 80 percent of the party, she said, adding that the support of voters was with her husband. She said this was because they knew it will help the nation’s future and progress.

The NCP candidate said she had no first hand experience in contesting elections but was active during polls that her family members contested in the past including her husband. “I too have a background in politics as my brother and others have been in politics since a long time. It is true that few of my family members are campaigning for the rival candidate but several family members of my husband as well as relatives from my parents’ family have started campaigning for me,” she said.

Regarding the possibility of her sons Parth and Jay carving out political careers, considering what the family had gone through in the past, Sunetra said, “Presently, both are involved in handling election work from office as the entire family cannot be on the field. Someone has to handle the situation at the back end. The