A week after her defeat in the Lok Sabha polls,
NCP
president and deputy chief minister
Ajit Pawar
’s wife
Sunetra
filed her
nomination
papers for the
Rajya Sabha
seat left vacant by Praful Patel’s resignation. Since there’s only one candidate from the state, she will be elected unopposed. Patel, who is NCP working president, was also re-elected to the Rajya Sabha a month ago.
Sunetra filed her nomination in the presence of NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal.
No senior MahaYuti leader of the Shiv Sena and BJP was present. In party circles, the decision to nominate Sunetra drew criticism, especially in the light of her recent defeat in the Lok Sabha elections: Sunetra was beaten by a margin of 1.58 lakh votes in Baramati by Supriya Sule.
Praful Patel played down the absence of leaders from allied parties during the nomination process saying since it was a by-election, they may have chosen not to be present. According to Patel, the decision to field Sunetra was taken at a core group meeting on Wednesday night attended by Ajit Pawar, Tatkare and Bhujbal. “There was no dispute over the nomination of Sunetra, it was a consensus choice, and it was a foregone conclusion that she would be elected unopposed,’ he said.
However, a section of NCP MLAs expressed dissatisfaction over Sunetra’s selection and the sidelining of contenders like Chhagan Bhujbal. One of them said NCP should have looked for a candidate other than a Pawar family member. “Nobody objected to Sunetra Pawar’s candidature from Baramati during the Lok Sabha election. All party workers from Baramati worked for her wholeheartedly. However, after her defeat, we felt Ajit Pawar should have picked a senior leader to send a positive signal to the functionaries and workers,” said an NCP MLA.
Bhujbal told TOI, “Perhaps my party felt that I am a misfit for the Rajya Sabha bypoll. I have been loyal to my party and abided by collective decisions. I was present when Sunetra filed her nomination.”
State party president Sunil Tatkare said neither Bhujbal nor other leaders are upset. “It was a unanimous decision taken by the core group of the party. Nobody in the NCP is upset about it. The senior leadership makes decisions considering what is good for the party for its future and it will continue to do so,” he added.
A commerce graduate, Sunetra and Ajit Pawar together have declared property worth Rs 123 crore.
(With inputs from Ranjan Dasgupta and Anurag Bende)
