Mumbai: Sunetra Pawar, wife of NCP national president and Maharashtra deputy chief Ajit Pawar, has met Anant Rao Thopate, who is an old political rival of Sharad Pawar. The visit comes close on heels of Supriya Sule meeting with Anant Rao, who is father of sitting Congress party MLA Sangram Thopate from Bhor assembly constituency. Speculation is rife that the Ajit Pawar-led NCP would field Sunetra against incumbent MP Supriya Sule in Baramati.
According to Sangram Thopte, Sunetra Pawar had come to meet his father on Friday around 5pm at his home in Bhor.
Bhor is one of the six assembly segments in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency. Anantrao Thopte, who had represented Bhor in the assembly six times before a shock defeat in 1999, was known as one of Sharad Pawar’s rivals within the Congress when the latter was with the Grand Old Party.
Speaking with this newspaper, Sangram Thopte said that the media should not read too much into it, as the meeting did not have any political significance.
“Sunetra Pawar, who was in Bhor for her party programme related to women’s Self Help Groups on Friday, visited our house to inquire about my father’s health when I was in Maharashtra State legislature in Mumbai. It was a family visit. you should not link personal visits with politics,” Sangram told this newspaper.
He also said that Supriya Sule had also come to his home to meet his father a month ago.
When asked whether his family would support Sunetra Pawar or Supriya Sule in view of the old rivalry of his father with Sharad Pawar, the Congress legislator said he would work for Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) candidate Supriya Sule. “I am with the MVA. I am working for the MVA candidate Supriya Sule,” he said.
It may be recalled that Sangram was reportedly upset when he did not get a ministerial berth or the Speaker’s post in the previous MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray. There is a speculation that Sangram is one of the Congress legislators who could join the BJP before the legislative assembly elections.
