Congress Declares Candidate Against Sunetra Pawar
The rift in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over contesting the by-election from Baramati Vidhan Sabha seat in Maharashtra finally came out open on Sunday
Mumbai: The rift in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over contesting the by-election from Baramati Vidhan Sabha seat in Maharashtra finally came out open on Sunday. Just hours after the Sharad Pawar-led NCP officially announced that they will not field its nominee against Sunetra Pawar, its ally Congress announced Akash More as its candidate for the Baramati bypoll.
Congress on Sunday announced that advocate Akash Vijayrao More will be its candidate for the Baramati seat. Akash More is the Secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee and his father, Vijayrao More, was a member of the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad.
According to party sources, Maharashtra Congress state chief Harshwardhan Sapkal will be present in Baramati, during the filing of nomination by Akash More on Monday.
The grand old party’s decision to field a candidate came just a few hours after NCP (SP) state chief Shashikant Shinde said that his party will not contest the Baramati by-election. Shinde met the party supremo Sharad Pawar on Sunday and discussed the matter with him.
After the meeting, Shinde said, “In case of the Baramati by-poll, we will not contest this election as a tribute to Ajitdada. We had already made it clear when Ajitdada died in an accident.”
Deputy Chief Minister and NCP president Sunetra Pawar also sought Congress support for an unopposed Baramati bypoll. On Sunday, she spoke with Harshwardhan Sapkal and urged him to ensure an unopposed by-election in Baramati seat, which she is contesting.
A day earlier, Sunetra Pawar had also reached out to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, seeking his support for the by-election. Thackeray, whose party is a part of the MVA, has not yet clarified his party’s stand.
Currently, a Rajya Sabha member, Sunetra Pawar, is set to file her nomination on Monday. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of her husband and then Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in January.
Baramati is Pawar family’s fiefdom with Ajit Pawar getting elected eight times from the constituency. In the 2019 Vidhan Sabha election, he had won the seat by a margin of 1.65 lakh votes. In 2024, he retained the seat by a margin of more than one lakh votes, defeating his nephew Yugendra Pawar.