As the ongoing electoral battle between the members of the Pawar family intensified in Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, breakaway nephew and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar of the NCP on Friday fired a fresh salvo at NCP chief and family patriarch Sharad Pawar, by revealing that he wanted to part ways with his uncle way back in 2004.

Addressing an election rally at Indapur Assembly segment which falls in the Baramati constituency, Ajitdada – as Ajit Pawar is known in the State political circles – expressed his regret of not severing his political links with Sharad Pawar in 2004.

In the 2004 State Assembly polls, the then NCP and Congress –which were ruling Maharashtra as Democratic Front (DF)—had won 71 and 69 seats as against 62 and 54 seats won by the Opposition Shiv Sena  (then united) and the BJP respectively. The DF had gone onto form a state government for the second time.   

“In 2004, when we (NCP) had won more seats, the Congress was ready to give the chief minister’s post…Late (chief minister and Congress leader) Vilasrao Deshmukh told me that Madam (Sonia Gandhi) had said Congress had no moral right to claim the chief minister post,” Ajitdada said at the Indapur rally.

Ajitdada that if Sharad Pawar had insisted, the NCP could have got the chief minister’s post. “Vilasrao Deshmukh asked us as to who would be chief minister from the NCP -- whether it is me, (late) RR Patil or Chhagan Bhujbal”.

“What Pawarsaheb did was to seek and get four additional ministerial berths and give up the chief minister’s post. Yet, at that time, I kept quiet. Now I feel I should have parted ways with my uncle in 2004 itself. I regret what I did not do then,” Ajitdada said.

It may be recalled that on July 2, 2023, the NCP witnessed vertical spilt after Ajit Pawar rebelled against the leadership, walked with a majority of party MLAs and teamed up with the BJP to be part of the Eknath Shinde government.

At his election rally, Ajitdada had a dig at his uncle Sharad Pawar when he said:  “Your political moves are strategies. And you term my political moves as betrayal. This is something I cannot digest”.

Meanwhile, the contest in Baramati Lok Sabha constituency between the two prominent members of the Pawar family –-- Sharad Pawar’s daughter and three-time MP Supriya Sule and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar – is getting fiercer with every passing day.

Baramati Lok Sabha constituency has been represented by the Sharad Pawar family for nearly four decades now. While Sharad Pawar was a two-time MP, his nephew Ajit Pawar represented Baramati for one term, Supriya Supe was a  three-term MP from Baramati.