Sule Says NCP (SP) Won’t Challenge ‘Sunetra vahini’ In Baramati Bypoll
The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced that bypolls to Baramati in Pune district and Rahuri in Ahilyanagar district will be held on April 23.
Mumbai: The NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule on Monday announced that her party will not contest the Baramati assembly bypolls. The NCP president Sunetra Pawar is likely to contest the byelection from Baramati.
“I have already clarified that NCP (SP) will not contest the Baramati bypoll. We will not field our candidate against Sunetra Vahini (sister-in-law). Even (opposition) Maha Vikas Aghadi will do likewise,” Sule said in New Delhi.
The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced that bypolls to Baramati in Pune district and Rahuri in Ahilyanagar district will be held on April 23. The elections were necessitated by the deaths of then deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and BJP legislator Shivaji Kardile.
The NCP is set to field Sunetra Pawar from the Baramati seat, though the party has not yet announced her name. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Sule, daughter of Sharad Pawar, retained the Baramati parliamentary seat by defeating Sunetra Pawar in her first electoral contest.
Sunetra Pawar was later elected to the Rajya Sabha. Following Ajit Pawar’s death in a plane crash near the Baramati airstrip in January this year, she was appointed deputy chief minister and president of the NCP. As per the constitutional provision, she must be elected within six months in the State Legislature.
However, Sule said the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi would soon decide its candidate for the Rahuri bypoll after discussions among alliance partners.
Her comments came after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis expressed hope that bypolls to the Baramati and Rahuri Assembly seats would be held unopposed. “We are making efforts to ensure that a unanimous decision is reached on this count. However, if this election is forced upon us, we are prepared to fight it with full strength,” he said in Ahilyanagar.
The Rahuri seat had fallen vacant due to the death of BJP MLA Shivajirao Kardile in October last year. The BJP is likely to field a family member of his from the seat.
The results of the bypolls would be announced on May 5.
