'Unfortunate': Sharad Pawar's grandnephew Yugendra on contesting against uncle Ajit Pawar

Yugendra Pawar is the son of Ajit's brother Shrinivas Pawar and will make his political debut from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar faction in the Maharashtra Assembly elections to be held on November 20.

Speaking to ANI, when asked about his candidature against his own uncle who has won this seat seven times, he said, "I feel it is quite sad, quite unfortunate that this had to come in the family."

"Not in Vidhan Sabha but it started in Lok Sabha and we were always together and even the incumbent MLA was always under the guidance of the founder of the party and family patriarch Sharad Pawar Sahab. What happened all of India has seen. The party split and the symbol was given to them by the election commission," he said.

During the Lok Sabha election, Yugendra campaigned for his aunt and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule who was contesting against Ajit's Sunetra.

The Ajit Pawar faction is eyeing this election as a big chance to regain the face it lost in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year.

Not only did the party fail to win more than one of the four seats it contested, Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar was defeated by his cousin Supriya Sule from Baramati.

Ajit Pawar had later expressed regrets over that election saying he should not have fielded his wife against his cousin.

"I love all my sisters. One shouldn't allow politics to enter homes. I made a mistake in fielding Sunetra against my sister. This shouldn't have happened. But the parliamentary board (of NCP) made a decision. Now I feel it was wrong," Ajit Pawar had said.

However, two months later he is up against his nephew from the same seat.

Yugendra Pawar is an alumnus of Boston's Northeastern University and has been preparing for his political launch under Sharad Pawar and is known to be close to him.

Ajit Pawar has been representing Baramnati since 1991 when the NCP was not formed and he and his uncle, Sharad Pawar, were part of the Congress.

This time, he had said he was "not interested" in contesting elections anymore. Amid speculation that his son Jay Pawar would contest from Baramati, he had said that would be his party's decision.

"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," he said.

If the parliamentary board and "people" felt that Jay should be fielded, the NCP was ready to field him, he had said.

However, the party announced his name in the first list. 

Ajit Pawar's elder son Parth Pawar had contested the Maval Lok Sabha seat in 2019 but lost by a heavy margin.