Shortly after that the NCP led by Ajit Pawar announced the candidature of Sunetra Pawar from the seat. Baramati will now witness a straight fight between the two members of the Pawar family--Supriya and Sunetra.

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Sunetra is the wife of Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Sharad Pawar .who rebelled against the uncle and hijacked the majority of the party‘s legislators to join the ruling front. While Supriya is the sitting MP, Sunetra is entering> electoral politics for the first time.

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Baramati ,the pocket borough of Sharad Pawar from where he was first elected to the Maharashtra legislative assembly in 1967 and the Lok Sabha since 1996, has been on the BJP's radar for a while.

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The BJP knows that it must take the Baramati route, and can only become a pan Maharashtra party by ending the dominance of Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra. This is the right time, they feel, for the BJP to weaken the Maratha strongman, starting by defeating his candidate in his home turf.

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The Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who is heading the NCP faction, is desperate to become the chief minister. But it’s an uphill task as he is facing corruption charges and has made more enemies in politics than friends. He may have moved closer to the BJP to get free from the charges.. But with> Vijay Shivtare , now with chief minister Eknath Shinde, contesting the Baramati seat as an Independent and making a frontal attack on Ajit Pawar a few days ago, it will not be easy.

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The BJP leader and former minister Harshvardhan Patil too has attacked Ajit Pawar, even back when he was in the Congress. This was because Ajit Pawar had worked against Harshvardhan which led to his defeat twice in the Indapur constituency which falls under the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.

Another BJP leader Gopichand too has been vocal against Ajit and the Pawar family.> Although the BJP leadership has finally succeeded in pacifying them albeit temporarily ,it will be interesting to see whether the supporters of Gopichand, Harshvardhan and Shivtare will vote for Ajit Pawar's nominee.> Names of leaders other than Sunetra Pawar are doing the rounds to fight the Baramati seat.

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But the BJP knows that as it is Ajit Pawar's seat, only he - through his candidate Sunetra - can demolish the Pawar empire.

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The NCP (Sharad Pawar) meanwhile has renominated Dr Amol Kolhe ,tv actor turned politician from Shirur ,Bhaskar Bhagore from Dindori, Amar Kale from Wardha and Nilesh Lanke from Ahmednagar.

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Parties in the ruling party and the Opposition --BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath shinde) ,Shiv Sena ( Uddhav Thackeray),the Congress have started announcing the names of their candidates. Even Vanchi Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) led by Prakash Ambedkar released its first list of nominees after announcing the failure of its seat sharing talks with the Maha Vikas Aghadi. The battle has just begun.