Something unthinkable happened in Baramati a few days ago.
Sharad Pawar, founder of the Nationalist Congress Party, visited the family of late Sambhajirao ‘Lalasaheb’ Kakde, ending his 55-year-old political rivalry with the Kakdes and their supporters. The feud between Pawar and the Kakde clan is one of the fiercest rivalries in Maharashtra politics, be it in Lok Sabha polls or assembly polls or elections to sugar cooperatives in Pune district. But this Lok Sabha elections is a different story altogether. Pawar, now head of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), had to knock on the doors of the Kakdes to seek support for his daughter, Supriya Sule, who is facing the toughest battle of her political career. Sule is contesting against her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar, fielded by the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction which is part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Similar unimaginable scenarios are playing out across the state as the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-led INDIA bloc (Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra) are battling it out for every vote in each of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha constituencies. Maharashtra politics has taken near-chaotic twists and turns between 2019 and 2024, following the splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP, toppling of the MVA government and swearing in of Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government. In 2014 and 2019, the saffron alliance (with the Shiv Sena intact and then part of the NDA) swept the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, winning 42 of the 48 seats. Such a sweep is next to impossible this time though. And that is why political leaders have realised the importance of burying old rivalries.
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