Ajit Pawar signals readiness to pass Baramati assembly baton to younger son Jai

“We are living in a democracy and will give him a chance. I am not interested anymore, having already contested seven-eight times. If other local workers are keen, then the parliamentary board of the party will decide the contestant from Baramati,” said Pawar, responding to queries by mediapersons about Jay’s supporters demanding an opportunity for him to contest from Baramati. Pawar was in Pune on the second leg of the Jan Sanman Yatra.

Pawar, a seven-term MLA from the Baramati assembly seat, is currently on a state-wide tour to engage with the public, particularly women, and promote schemes launched by the state government in the recently presented 2024-25 state budget. On the other hand, as NCP (SP) is yet to name its candidate, Yugendra Pawar’s name has been doing the rounds for the Baramati assembly constituency. Yugendra is Ajit Pawar’s elder brother Shrinivas’s son and is actively campaigning in the constituency.

Incidentally, Ajit Pawar’s move came a day after his nephew Rohit Pawar, who remained loyal to Sharad Pawar, indicated that NCP was weighing a possibility of repeating the Baramati experiment by fielding someone from the Pawar family against him, and hinted it could be Ajit Pawar himself.