Mumbai:

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar admitted that it was a mistake to field his wife Sunetra Pawar against his cousin Supriya Sule in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Ms Sule, daughter of NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, had defeated Sunetra Pawar, representing the Ajit Pawar NCP faction, in the Baramati Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes.

“It was my mistake to field her against Supriya Sule, I have told you again and again. It is over now. On November 20 there is an election in Maharashtra and the voters will decide in whose hands Maharashtra should be given for five years. We are paying more attention to that,” Mr Pawar told NDTV. 

Mr Pawar said that his primary focus remains on campaigning in the constituencies allotted to the NCP under the Mahayuti (Grand Alliance). The 65-year-old said that despite occasional calls from alliance partners like the BJP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena faction to join their campaigns, he is prioritising NCP seats. “Right now, with only a few days left, I am concentrating on our constituencies and holding public rallies,” he said.

Nepotism In Politics

Mr Pawar said that political families have played a role in all major parties, from Congress to the BJP, Shiv Sena, and even the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). He argued that ultimately, it is the voters who decide whether a candidate from a political family deserves their support. 

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“The BJP speaks against nepotism, but in this election, both the Mahavikas Aghadi and the Mahayuti alliances have numerous candidates from political families. This trend has been part of Indian politics for decades. After we gained independence in 1947, the families who initially entered politics continued to hold influence. The Congress party dominated government for many years, bringing successive generations into its ranks,” Mr Pawar said. 

“Now, across all parties – whether Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), BJP, or even the MNS – family members of political leaders are running for office.  However, it’s ultimately the voters who decide. Regardless of family ties, voters support candidates they believe will work for the people,” he added. 

Electoral Confidence

Mr Pawar also expressed strong confidence in his own candidacy, claiming that he would “100 per cent” secure his seat in the upcoming assembly elections. Referring to the recent Lok Sabha elections, where a “sympathy factor” for Sharad Pawar influenced outcomes in Baramati, he stated, “This time, I am fully confident of winning my seat. I am certain of a 100 per cent victory.”

The Maharashtra assembly elections will decide the fate of 288 seats, with the Mahayuti coalition, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP, facing off against the Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, which includes the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP factions. The 2019 assembly polls saw the BJP emerge as the largest party with 105 seats, while the Shiv Sena won 56 and the Congress 44.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, the MVA gained ground, winning 30 out of 48 seats, while the Mahayuti coalition managed to secure 17. 

Mumbai:

With the Maharashtra Assembly elections just over a month away, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi has firmed up seat sharing on 263 of the state’s 288 Assembly constituencies, sources have told NDTV.

A meeting of alliance partners Congress, the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP and the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena was held on Thursday and good progress was made in seat-sharing discussions, the sources said. The meeting was attended by Congress Maharashtra President Nana Patole, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leaders Jitendra Awhad, Jayant Patil and Anil Deshmukh, among others.

The remaining 25 seats which remain disputed include five of the 36 Assembly constituencies in Mumbai, including Kurla, Dharavi, Versova and Byculla. The sources said the list of finalised and disputed segments will be sent to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and the heads of the other two coalition partners, Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, who will take a final decision in “two to three days”. 

The Election Commission announced on Tuesday that the Maharashtra polls will be held in a single phase on November 20, setting the stage for one of the most interesting Assembly contests the state has ever seen. 

Shifting Equations

The last election in 2019 was a fairly straightforward battle between the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena coalition on the one hand and the Congress-NCP alliance on the other. Despite having the numbers to form the government after the results were declared, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance split over the chief minister’s post and Uddhav Thackeray took the top job in the state after forging a coalition with the NCP and the Congress, which were seen as unlikely partners. 

A rebellion by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde led to the government falling in 2022 and Mr Shinde went on to take oath as the chief minister with the BJP’s support. The ruling alliance got a third partner the following year when Ajit Pawar decided to split the NCP and took oath as the deputy chief minister alongside BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The contest now is between the Congress, the BJP and two Shiv Senas and NCPs, whose leaders are out to prove they are the real claimants of the original parties’ legacies despite the original symbols and names going to the rebel factions. 

Lok Sabha Results

The Lok Sabha elections jolted the ruling coalition, known as the Mahayuti, when it won just 17 of the state’s 48 constituencies while the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s tally was 30. The Assembly elections were, thus, seen as an uphill battle for the Mahayuti but appear to have been made easier by the results of the polls in Haryana, where the BJP formed a government – delivering its best-ever performance in the state – despite battling anti-incumbency after two straight terms in power.

While the Congress was criticised by its allies, including Mr Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, over the Haryana loss, Sharad Pawar said on Thursday that the elections in the northern state would not have a bearing on the Maharashtra results. 

“We are studying the Haryana results, but at the same time look at the results of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. I do not think that it (Haryana results) will have any bearing on the state’s elections. As far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, the world community gives more attention to it and its poll results are more important for the country,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The National Conference-Congress Alliance won 48 of Jammu and Kashmir’s 80 constituencies in the erstwhile state’s first Assembly elections since 2014. The Congress contributed only six of these, however, and decided to extend support to the government from outside after the Omar Abdullah-led party received the backing of four Independents and the lone AAP MLA. Sources had said the decision was taken after the Congress was offered only one ministerial berth.

Pune:

The NCP (SP) agreed to contest fewer seats than its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies during the Lok Sabha elections but the situation would be different in the assembly polls, a party leader has quoted its supremo Sharad Pawar as saying.

Pawar held two meetings here on Friday, one with the party’s functionaries from Pune city and district, and another with its MLAs and newly-elected MPs.

City NCP (SP) chief Prashant Jagtap, who attended the first meeting, said Pawar told the gathering that the party contested fewer seats in the Lok Sabha polls just to ensure that the alliance with the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress remained intact.

“He indicated that the picture in the assembly polls will be different,” said Jagtap.

The NCP (SP) chief also reviewed the situation in assembly segments within the Pune, Baramati, Maval and Shirur Lok Sabha constituencies, he said.

A party leader who attended the second meeting said Pawar exhorted the MPs and MLAs to be prepared for the assembly elections.

Meanwhile, state NCP (SP) chief Jayant Patil told reporters that the party had not yet decided how many seats it would seek during the MVA seat-sharing talks.

As to the candidate for the Baramati assembly seat, currently represented by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, the head of the rival NCP, Patil said Pawar senior would take the decision.

Anil Deshmukh, another senior NCP (SP) leader, said to a question that there was no “elder brother and younger brother” in the MVA. “All are equal,” he said.

There was a lot of nervousness among the MLAs who are with the Ajit Pawar-led faction post the Lok Sabha results, and some of them were calling Patil and other NCP(SP) leaders, Deshmukh claimed. “Let’s see what is to be done with them,” he added.

While the NCP (SP) won eight Lok Sabha seats out of the 10 it contested, the Ajit Pawar-led faction won only one of the four seats it fought.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)