Ex-Sena MLA Shivtare throws hat in ring for high stakes Baramati seat

Former Shiv Sena MLA Vijay Shivtare on Wednesday said he will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election from Baramati in Maharashtra as an independent candidate to be the “voice of common voters” of the constituency.

Notably, NCP (SP) head Sharad Pawar recently said MP Supriya Sule would be his party’s candidate from Baramati, amid speculation that his nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar could be fielded from there.

Baramati in Pune district is the political stronghold of Pawars. Talking to news agency, Shivtare, who represented the Purandar assembly seat in Baramati before facing defeat in 2019, said he was firm on his decision to contest as an independent candidate from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat as the “voice of common voters” of the constituency.

“(Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena head) Eknath Shinde is my leader and I will make him understand my stand,” he said.

Shivtare said he has not been approached by any political leader over his decision to contest from Baramati.

He claimed that seven lakh persons voted in the favour of Pawars and 5.8 lakh persons did not for anyone from that family in the last Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

The Pawar family is winning for the last 41 years but development is centred around Baramati city only, he said.

Nearly two lakh persons in Supa-Pargana in western Baramati have been facing water scarcity, Shivtare claimed.

The former MLA, who belongs to the Shiv Sena-led by CM Shinde, said he had got a Rs 118 crore water supply scheme for Fursingi and Devachi Urli villages (near Purandar in Baramati),

having a population of four-and-half lakh, and required Rs 25 crore more.