Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday blamed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil’s remark against Sharad Pawar as what ‘proved costly’ for his wife Sunetra in her Lok Sabha contest against sister-in-law Supriya Sule in Baramati.
Sunetra Pawar lost to sitting NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule by 1,58,333 votes. Sule is Sharad Pawar’s daughter and Ajit Pawar’s cousin.
“I am surprised with the verdict in Baramati,” Ajit Pawar said.
He held a meeting of NCP MLAs following his party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls. The NCP won just one seat, i.e Raigad.
ALSO READ: After losing Baramati, what lies ahead for Ajit Pawar?
“(BJP minister) Chandrakant Patil’s remarks that they wanted to finish Sharad Pawar in Baramati proved costly for us,” Pawar said. It is not the first time when the NCP chief expressed his displeasure over the BJP leader’s remark.
Chandrakant Patil had said,”BJP wants to defeat Sharad Pawar at any cost.”
“Sharad Pawar was not a contestant for Baramati Lok Sabha seat. It was a wrong statement made by Patil, and after he said it, we asked him not to campaign in Baramati but shifted him to Pune. Later, Patil did not mention anything about it,” Ajit Pawar had said.
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Supriya Sule, during her campaign had hit out at BJP over Patil’s remarks, alleging that the saffron party wanted to politically destroy her father.
“These are not my words, these are the words of state BJP leader Chandrakant Patil, who had come to Baramati and said they want to finish Sharad Pawar. These are not my words. A BJP leader said this,” she said.
Ajit, Sule’s cousin who rebelled against her father Sharad Pawar last year and split the party, is known to enjoy a lot of support in the family bastion of Baramati, and hence, many political observers felt that Sule would find it difficult to win the fourth consecutive term.
