Winds of change can be felt in Maharashtra politics. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday has said he made a mistake by fielding his wife Sunetra Pawar against his cousin Supriya Sule in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Baramati in Maharashtra's Pune district witnessed a fierce contest after two members of the influential Pawar family contested against each other. This was also the first major electoral battle between the factions after the party split in July last year. NCP (SP) candidate Supriya Sule retained her Baramati Lok Sabha seat by more than 1.55 lakh votes.
While Sule, a Sansad Ratna awardee, was seeking a fourth term to the Lower House of Parliament, Sunetra Pawar, who is an office-bearer of various educational and industry bodies and has been active in the social sphere of Baramati, was contesting her maiden Lok Sabha election.
Speaking to a Marathi channel, Ajit Pawar said, "I love all my sisters. One shouldn't allow politics to enter homes. I made a mistake in fielding Sunetra against my sister. This shouldn't have happened. But the parliamentary board (of NCP) made a decision. Now I feel it was wrong."
In February, the Election Commission (EC) recognised the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the NCP as the official party and granted it the party's "clock" symbol while allotting "Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar" as the party name for the group led by Sharad Pawar.
