House of Cards

Two women, two election symbols-voters in Baramati appear to be befuddled by the recent political saga that has split the NCP and the powerful Pawar clan

- Shweta Desai

“ARRE deva (oh god)! There are two Nationalist Congress Parties (NCP) now, aren’t there!” 80-year-old Muktabai Sable exclaims, as the Lok Sabha candidate of NCP’s Sharad Pawar faction, Supriya Sule, marches by her house in Baramati’s Aamrai neighbourhood. Sable lives a stone’s throw away from the home of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, who is also the candidate’s father and regarded as the grand patriarch of Maharashtra politics.

While Sule bows and smiles as she walks by, Sable and other voters like her in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency appear to be befuddled by the recent political saga that has split the NCP and the powerful Pawar clan.

Dressed in a yellow cotton saree, Sule braves the peak noon sun to make a last-minute appeal to the voters, ahead of the May 7 polls. “Ram Krishna Hari, Vazwa Tutari (Blow the Trumpet),” she says, letting voters know about her party’s new symbol; a man blowing turha, a traditional trumpet. She also reminds them that she and her party, NCP (SP), are listed third on the EVM roster.

Days earlier, Sunetra Pawar, Sule’s sister-in-law and candidate for the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, visited the same neighbourhood to woo voters. ‘Only vote for ghadyal (clock), no other symbol,” she urged, informing people that her name was on the second button of the EVM, just above Sule’s.