Baramati Lok Sabha constituency has been a Pawar pocketborough since 1991. Starting from Ajit Pawar to then Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule, in the last two terms, it has been domination of one family for close to three decades.
Before that Pawar won in 1984 too, contesting on an Indian Congress (socialist) ticket. The Baramati Assembly seat has been won by a member of Pawar family since 1967. They may have shifted parties but the love affair with Baramati has remained the same.
BJP and Shiv Sena has never won this Lok Sabha seat in Western Maharashtra. However, that is not dampening BJP's spirit which has gone allout to script an upset. Amit Shah in campaign trail said BJP is not interested in friendly fight in Baramati. He said, "was no plan to have my rally in Baramati as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is doing a great job and that is why the party had reduced (number of) my rallies in Maharashtra.
However, there was a rumour doing the rounds that there is a friendly fight between BJP and Pawar."
"I have come here to clarify that BJP is going to win Baramati seat with a huge margin. There cannot be a friendly fight here because the BJP is pulling out all the stops to win the seat," he added. Challenging Pawar in his own bastion, Shah asked the people to "hit at the root". "Today I have come here on his (Pawar) land. He is a very big leader. He was chief minister of the state, he was defence minister and agriculture minister in the Centre. Only Pawar saheb knows the art of being in power for the last 50 years," he said.
"Pawar claims to have brought development to Maharashtra but I would like to ask him what exactly has he given to Maharashtra,"
Facing off against Supriya Sule is BJP's Kanchal Rahul Kaul. Kul, wife of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha MLA Rahul Kul is a novice but comes from a political family. Apart from husband who is MLA, mother-in-law Ranjana Kul was NCP MLA from Daund and her father-in-law Subhash Kul was Congress MLA and a Sharad Pawar loyalist.
The assembly segments under Baramati are: Daund, Indapur, Baramati , Purandar , Bhor and Khadakwasla. While NCP won in a canter by over 3. 5 lakh votes in 2014, a few months later in the assembly Sena and BJP won 2 seats and Rahul Kul won Daund contesting for Rashtriya Samaj Paksha. The voters will decide on April 23, if they are looking for a change or just content with status quo.
With PTI inputs
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