Sena’s Shivtare wants to contest LS polls from Baramati against Pawars

Former minister and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leader Vijay Shivtare on Monday announced to contest the Lok Sabha elections against the two politically opponent Pawar family members Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar in the Baramati constituency.

Shivtare made the announcement at Saswad on Monday saying Baramati should not be considered by anyone as a personal fiefdom. In local politics, Shivtare is known to be a detractor of Sule and Ajit Pawar, who during the 2019 assembly polls did not leave any stone unturned to defeat Shivtare.

Shivtare was among the first few leaders in the state to join Shinde after the latter rebelled against Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in 2022. While there is an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Shiv Sena, Shivtare’s announcement has raised eyebrows.

In the seat-sharing arrangement, Baramati is set to go with the NCP, and Ajit’s wife Sunetra Pawar is likely to contest the elections against sitting MP and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Sule.

Despite having an alliance, Shivtare made the announcement for contesting the Lok Sabha election and asked his supporters not to think for election symbol.

Shivtare said, “For last 50 years, the Baramati Lok Sabha seat has been with the Pawar family. The Baramati Lok Sabha is not the ownership of any family and written on 7/12 extract.”

He said, “Why cannot the Baramati MP not be from other assembly segments such as Purandar, Bhor and Indapur?”

The Sena leader also alleged that Ajit had in the past insulted him.

“Even Sule has not delivered any work for other tehsils except Baramati town. There were more than five lakh votes against the Pawar family in the last election. I am contesting the election to respect these votes,” he said.

Though Purandar is adjacent of Baramati, Shivtare was elected twice in the assembly elections. During the 2019 polls, Shivtare was defeated by Congress MLA Sanjay Jagtap.