Not without my daughter: Pawar to ‘quit’ Baramati
Nationalist Congress Party leader and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule are set to swap seats. Mr Pawar, a Lok Sabha MP, declared on Thursday at a function in Baramati that he will not contest another Lok Sabha ...
By Agencies |
BARAMATI: Nationalist Congress Party leader and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule are set to swap seats. Mr Pawar, a Lok Sabha MP, declared on Thursday at a function in Baramati that he will not contest another Lok Sabha election, due early next year.
Incidentally, a few days ago, Ms Sule had stated that should the party give her a ticket to contest LS elections, she was ready to do so. She is currently a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha.
���I will not be contesting another Lok Sabha election,��� said the Maratha leader. ���I have been in electoral politics for the past 40-41 years. Which is not to say that I will not be in parliament. I have now reached the stage where I think I should go to the Rajya Sabha. I do not wish to contest direct elections now,��� Mr Pawar told reporters at Baramati, after inaugurating the first crushing of grapes at the Four Seasons Winery of the UB Group.
Assuming the role of an elder statesman, Mr Pawar is yet ensuring that the seat remains within the family. Ms Sule was being groomed for this role, the first step of which was to sit as a member of the upper house.
Mr Pawar deftly fielded questions over the proposed swap, saying it is for the party to offer the seat to Ms Sule.
Baramati constituency is practically a Pawar family fiefdom: While he is the Lok Sabha MP, his nephew Ajit who is a minister in the state Cabinet ��� is the local MLA, and Ms Sule is the Rajya Sabha member. The senior Pawar���s decision to move to the upper house, therefore, sounds more like a shuffling of the deck.
Incidentally, a few days ago, Ms Sule had stated that should the party give her a ticket to contest LS elections, she was ready to do so. She is currently a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha.
���I will not be contesting another Lok Sabha election,��� said the Maratha leader. ���I have been in electoral politics for the past 40-41 years. Which is not to say that I will not be in parliament. I have now reached the stage where I think I should go to the Rajya Sabha. I do not wish to contest direct elections now,��� Mr Pawar told reporters at Baramati, after inaugurating the first crushing of grapes at the Four Seasons Winery of the UB Group.
Assuming the role of an elder statesman, Mr Pawar is yet ensuring that the seat remains within the family. Ms Sule was being groomed for this role, the first step of which was to sit as a member of the upper house.
Mr Pawar deftly fielded questions over the proposed swap, saying it is for the party to offer the seat to Ms Sule.
Baramati constituency is practically a Pawar family fiefdom: While he is the Lok Sabha MP, his nephew Ajit who is a minister in the state Cabinet ��� is the local MLA, and Ms Sule is the Rajya Sabha member. The senior Pawar���s decision to move to the upper house, therefore, sounds more like a shuffling of the deck.
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Such is the senior Pawar���s hold on the constituency that he need not canvass here. In fact, hoardings of the opposition candidate are conspicuous by their absence. He has usually canvassed in other constituencies for other candidates and gone to Baramati only to cast his vote. The machinery set in place by his late elder brother, Appasaheb, was such that he did not need to look into the canvassing. Now with Mr Pawar expressing his willingness to stay away from election politics, Baramati in all probability will be bequeathed to his daughter.Download
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