NCP swapped Satara with BJP for Rajya Sabha seat: Ajit Pawar

Pune: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has swapped the Satara Lok Sabha seat with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for a Rajya Sabha (RS) seat, said Ajit Pawar on Tuesday.

Speaking to a Marathi news channel, Ajit said that while the Satara Lok Sabha seat originally was of his party, the organisation chose to give it to the BJP for Chhatrapati Shivaji’s descendant Udayanraje Bhonsle in exchange for RS seat.

Ajit and his party were initially aggressive to get the seat for his party, for the sitting MP of Satara Shriniwas Patil who was originally from the undivided NCP, during the seat-sharing talks among Mahayuti alliance which comprises NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena.

As Udayanraje, a Rajya Sabha MP, refused to contest on NCP ticket mostly because his equations with the party chief are not considered friendly, and insisted to fight polls only on BJP’s nomination, the Ajit Pawar-led party had to give up the claim.

“After initial discussion, we reached to a consensus within the party that Satara seat should be given to the 13th descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. However, at the same time, it was also decided within the alliance that NCP will get a Rajya Sabha seat in exchange of Satara,” said Ajit.

The deputy CM said that the Rajya Sabha seat will be given to a leader from Satara district only. “One of our colleagues from Satara district will be nominated for the Rajya Sabha seat so that he will raise issues from the region in Delhi,” he said.

In Satara, Udayanraje Bhonsle is locked in a close fight against NCP (SP) candidate Shashikant Shinde.

Ajit said, “There has been no any pressure on us in the seat sharing. Our parliamentary board had taken all the decisions after discussion. Considering social engineering, we have preferred RSP leader Mahadev Jankar from Parbhani,” he said.

On Shirur seat, Ajit said Shivajirao Adhalrao had approached him before the seat sharing and “shown eagerness to join our party as he was previously with us”.

On being asked about the 2019 loss of Parth Pawar from Maval, Ajit on Tuesday claimed that his family was not keen for the son to be fielded from Maval.

Ajit said, “In 2019, we were not keen for Parth to contest polls from Maval Lok Sabha seat as it was not safe. I and my wife Sunetra both met Pawar at his Mumbai residence and requested him not to consider Maval seat for Parth as we had to pay more attention to Baramati. But Pawar saheb was our party and family’s chief and he did not concede to the request and instructed him to contest from Maval while we followed it.”