Will request Cong’s Kharge to support Sunetra Pawar’s candidature for Baramati bypoll, not field a candidate: Tatkare

Kolhapur: Deputy chief minister and NCP chief Sunetra Pawar will file nomination papers for the Baramati assembly bypoll on Monday in the presence of all ministers, elected members and office-bearers of the party, state NCP president Sunil Tatkare said on Sunday. Tatkare claimed that Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray has conveyed that his party will not field any candidate against Sunetra Pawar, while NCP executive president Praful Patel is trying to reach out to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge to request similar support for her candidature by not fielding a candidate.Meanwhile, Congress party's state unit led by Harshwardhan Sapkal sent names to the party central unit to finalise candidature for the bypoll. Akash More has been selected as an official nomination, according to the sources. Speaking in Solapur on Sunday, Tatkare said, "We are going to request the Congress high command to not field a candidate against Sunetra Pawar, considering that the other two partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), namely Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), have decided to do the same. We will also bring to their notice the life and work of late NCP chief Ajit Pawar, who passed away suddenly. In his place, Sunetra Pawar should get the chance to represent Baramati."Tatkare further said that if a contest is imminent, Sunetra Pawar will get huge support from the people of Baramati and win by record votes on the basis of the four-decades-long service done by Ajit Pawar for this region. "We will get to know who is in fray after the deadline for filing nominations ends on Monday. Thereafter, we will do everything we can to convince the candidates to withdraw," Tatkare added. Ajit Pawar had won the Baramati seat in 2024 by a margin of around 1 lakh votes, and before that in 2019 by 1.65 lakh votes.