SHIVTARE TO QUIT BARAMATI RACE
Meets top MahaYuti leaders; former MLA says formal announcement will be made later Ambedkar accuses Raut of back stabbing
In a significant development, a former legislator of the ruling Shiv Sena Vijay Shivtare is likely to quit the battle for Baramati, after he met top leaders of the MahaYuti alliance here on Thursday.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, along with senior Shiv Sena leader Bharat Gogawale had a 'fruitful' meeting with Shivtare at the CM's bungalow 'Varsha', on Thursday.
After the tete-a-tete, everybody emerged smiling broadly, indicating that the political brawl over Baramati has apparently ended and Shivtare may opt out of the race, though a formal announcement will be made later.
During their meeting, Shivtare discussed various issues regarding Purandar taluka in Pune district and the hardships faced by the people. The deliberations were positive, it said. Shinde resolved all issues that Shivtare raised in the meeting. He will spell out his future course of action during a press conference, the statement said.
Earlier, an adamant Shivtare had threatened to file his nomination papers for Baramati as an independent on April 12, and even “vowed to defeat Sunetra Pawar”, rattling the MahaYuti, and making Ajit Pawar edgy. The battle for Baramati is all set to be fought between the Nationalist
Congress Party (NCP) president Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar and NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule, the sitting 3-time MP.
The daughter of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, Sule is the 'nanad' (bhabhi) of Sunetra Pawar, and the two women enjoy a cordial relationship, as witnessed on several occasions in the recent past when they bumped into each other in the constituency on the campaign trail. Without taking any names, Ajit Pawar had hinted on Wednesday that the NCP will officially announce its nominee for Baramati in a day or so, "and the candidate shall be the person who is in your mind".
Baramati in Pune district is the political stronghold of Pawars. Shivtare, who belongs to the ruling Shiv Sena led by CM Shinde, had represented the Purandar assembly seat in Baramati before facing defeat in 2019. Sanjay Jagtap of the Congress defeated Shivtare from Purandar in 2019.
Prakash Ambedkar of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Thursday accused Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut of 'stabbing' him and his outfit in the back amid seat sharing talks with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Ambedkar was in talks with the MVA, which comprises the Congress, the Nationalist Congress (SP) and the Shiv Sena (UBT), for the Lok Sabha polls but recently announced candidates on several seats.
In a post on social media platform X, Ambedkar said, “How many lies Sanjay (Raut) is going to spread? If our thoughts are the same, then why were we not invited to the MVA meetings? Why have you been holding meetings without inviting any representative of the VBA?” “Despite being a political ally, you have stabbed us in our back. We know what kind of discussions you had held at the silver oak (the residence of opposition stalwart Sharad Pawar), you had even proposed building a candidate against Prakash Ambedkar in Akola Lok Sabha constituency,” he further said on X.
Raut was talking about an alliance but "on the other hand you conspire against us", Ambedkar alleged in his social media post.
Ambedkar will fight from Akola, though VBA has said it will support the MVA in Nagpur, where the Congress' Vikas Thakre is up against BJP heavyweight and Union minister Nitin Gadkari.