Maharashtra Assembly Polls: After being in headlines for calling the decision to field his wife Sunetra Pawar against his sister Supriya Sule in Baramati Lok Sabha polls a "mistake," Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday once again spoke about Baramati, hinting that his son Jay Pawar might take over as NCP's nominee for the seat in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls.
The 65-year-old leader also hinted that he might not be contesting the assembly elections, scheduled to be held later this year, since he was "not interested" anymore.
He further said it was for his party to decide whether his son Jay Pawar will contest from the Baramati assembly constituency.
However, despite Pawar's remarks, the state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare dismissed them stressing that the deputy CM did not say that he would not contest the coming assembly elections.
On being asked if Jay Pawar will be fielded from Baramati as demanded by his supporters, Ajit Pawar told news agency PTI: "It is democracy. I am not interested in that (contesting elections) as I have contested seven or eight elections. If the people and supporters think so, the (NCP) parliamentary board will discuss it."
"If the parliamentary board and “people” felt that Jay should be fielded, the NCP was ready to field him," he added.
Notably, back in 2019, the NCP chief's elder son Parth Pawar had contested the Maval Lok Sabha seat but had lost by a huge margin of over two lakh votes.
Pawar also debunked media reports about differences between him and CM Eknath Shinde, saying that both of them were working together successfully.
Upon being asked about his recent remark when he conceded that it was mistake to field his wife Sunetra against Supriya Sule in Baramati Lok Sabha seat, Pawar stated that he had already talked about the matter.
"I am not someone who makes comments directed at some person. I speak whatever comes to my mind, and there is no need to do dissection," he said.
Meanwhile, Tatkare, who claimed that Ajit Pawar did not deny that he would contest assembly polls, said: "Ajit Pawar did not say that he would not contest elections....he could have some plans. We want to win as many seats as possible."
The recent remarks by Ajit Pawar on his successor in the assembly polls comes after Rohit Pawar, grand-nephew of Sharad Pawar and an NCP (SP) MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed claimed that someone from the family could be fielded against him similar to the Baramati constituency.
"The Mahayuti (coalition of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP) is going to field candidates in my constituency to split votes. It was speculated that Ajit Pawar was under pressure to field someone from the family against Supriya Sule. Now, a similar strategy is being drawn up in my assembly constituency," he had said.