Baramati by-election: Sunetra Pawar casts vote, says people know ‘Dada’s work’
Sunetra Pawar enters electoral politics amid a legacy battle in Baramati, with voting underway and the bypoll shaped by Ajit Pawar’s sudden death earlier this year.
Sunetra Pawar enters electoral politics amid a legacy battle in Baramati, with voting underway and the bypoll shaped by Ajit Pawar’s sudden death earlier this year.
Congress on Thursday withdrew its Baramati candidate, advocate Akash More, from the by-election against Ajit Pawar-led NCP leader and Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar following appeals by several political leaders and a phone call from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to State Congress President Harshwardhan Sapkal.
The by-election in Baramati was necessitated following the untimely death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in a plane crash on January 28. Polling is scheduled for April 23, with counting set for May 4, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
High-drama was witnessed at the Marine Drive police station here on Wednesday after the late Ajit Pawar's nephew and Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Rohit Pawar, MLA Amol Mitkari, MLC Idris Naikwadi, and MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar requested police officials on duty to register a first information report (FIR) against the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena leader Bhaskar Jadhav revealed the reason NCP founder Sharad Pawar chose to deliberately downplay the late Deputy CM Ajit Pawar's air crash as “an accident” immediately after the tragic incident, during his condolence address at the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly here on Monday.
The accident had claimed six lives, including Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, after the aircraft crashed while landing near Baramati.
Rohit Pawar had held a press conference a few days ago and hinted at the possibility of foul play behind the plane crash. He had also accused the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) of not investigating the case thoroughly.
Incidentally, Ajit Pawar-led NCP MLA Amol Mitkari was the first to speak about what Gojubavi village sarpanch Kalyan Atole told Sharad Pawar on Wednesday.
Several other Pawar family members were also present at the venue. Sharad Pawar-led NCP MLA Rohit was the first to reach Sunetra Pawar's Sahyog Society residence along with his parents.
Sunetra Pawar was born in 1963 to Bajirao Patil, who was a political leader from Maharashtra's Darashiv.
