Lok Sabha polls: Supriya Sule, Sunetra Pawar file nominations from Baramati

Three-term Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule and her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar today, 18 April, filed their nominations for the Baramati Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra's Pune district on the NCP (SP) and NCP tickets, respectively.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, husband of Sunetra Pawar, also filed a set of nomination papers for the seat, which an NCP functionary described as a back-up plan in case Sunetra Pawar's nomination does not stand up to scrutiny or lest any discrepancy be found in it.

Polling in Baramati, the home borough of the Pawars, will be held on 7 May.

On behalf of the INDIA bloc, Congress leaders Balasaheb Thorat and Vishwajeet Kadam, among others, accompanied Sule — the sitting MP from Baramati and daughter of Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar — in a show of support as she filed the nomination papers before the returning officer at the Council Hall in Pune.

On the other side, chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel were present when Sunetra Pawar, who is making her poll debut, filed her nomination papers at the Council Hall later in the day.

Meanwhile, addressing a rally after Sule filed her nomination, Sharad Pawar said the BJP government at the Centre had deceived citizens for the past 10 years and and had failed to mitigate problems like inflation, unemployment, farm distress and atrocities against women.

"There is a significant disparity between the promises made 10 years ago on these issues and the current reality," the NCP (SP) chief said.

When Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, the price of petrol was Rs 71 per litre and he had promised to reduce it in 50 days, Pawar Sr. recalled. "Now, after 3,650 days, the price of petrol is 106 per litre," the former union minister said.

"LPG price per cylinder was 410 in 2014 and now it is around 1,000. The Modi government has also failed to create the promised 2 crore jobs. In fact, the employment rate has declined," he added.

He also underscored the INDIA bloc's allegations that the Union government was misusing its power and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren were in jail for merely criticising Modi.

Before Sunetra Pawar filed her nomination, the ruling Mahayuti constituents — the Shiv Sena faction led by Shinde, the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-headed NCP — also held a rally.

Addressing the gathering, Shinde said a change is inevitable in Baramati and raised the slogan "Abki baar, Sunetra Pawar (Sunetra Pawar this time)". Fadnavis said new history would be created as the "daughter-in-law of Baramati" would go to Delhi.

Sunetra Pawar herself spoke of the "tremendous work" done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the world had taken note. "Be it infrastructure, building of roads, Chandrayaan, Modi-ji has been instrumental in doing tremendous work and that is why he is in the minds of the people," she said.

Praful Patel and Union minister Ramdas Athawale, who heads the Republican Party of India (A) and is a BJP ally, also attended the rally.

Meanwhile, actor-turned-politician Amol Kolhe, the sitting MP and NCP (SP) candidate from Shirur Lok Sabha seat in Pune district, filed his nomination before the returning officer here as well.