Who is Yugendra Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew, who will fight against Ajit Pawar in Baramati?

The Baramati Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra is seeing a flurry of activity in politics.

The constituency has been the undivided National Congress Party’s (NCP) bastion.

But now, Ajit Pawar will be involved in yet another conflict between the two party factions and the family.

Yugendra Pawar, the grandnephew of seasoned leader Sharad Pawar, would be against him.

As a third-generation member of the Pawar family, he aims to succeed in politics.

Here’s all we know about him.

About Yugendra Pawar

Yugendra Pawar, 32, is son of Shrinivas Pawar, brother of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and has been close to Sharad Pawar.

He is the Treasurer of Vidya Pratishtan, an educational institute founded by Sharad Pawar and also heads the Baramati Taluka Kustigir Parishad.

After completing his education in Mumbai and Pune, he went overseas to study finance and insurance at North Eastern University in Boston.

Later, Yugendra joined his father’s company, Sharayu Group, which operates in the real estate, security, automotive, logistics, and agricultural sectors.

Yugendra has been working in Baramati as a social worker with the Sharayu Foundation, which recently held a half marathon there.

In December last year, on Sharad Pawar’s birthday, the Baramati Taluka Kustigir Parishad also held a wrestling tournament in the district under Yugendra.

His entry into the political sphere

He had led the party’s Swabhiman Yatra from Baramati in September and had campaigned for his aunt and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule during the recently concluded Lok Sabha election.

He paid a visit to the NCP founder’s office in Baramati on Wednesday and conveyed his support for senior Pawar.

Yugendra remained ambivalent even though his visit sparked rumours that he might enter politics.

“I have not taken any decision to join politics. I heard about the new office of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), so I decided to visit it. It was also to extend solidarity to the veteran political leader Sharad Pawar, the head of the Pawar family,” he said, according to The Indian Express.

“I will do whatever my grand uncle (Sharad Pawar) asks me. I will campaign for any candidate he wants me to campaign for,” Yugendra said, adding that he has been doing a lot of social work in Baramati and spends a lot of time with local citizens.

When the NCP (SP) announced its initial list of 45 candidates for the Maharashtra assembly elections, Yugendra was included among Jayant Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, and others, confirming his political debut.

“Baramati candidate selection is based on the demand from the local people of Baramati. I had an interaction with them. They have suggested that he (Yugendra) is a new face, young and educated, and can take everyone along. So we thought he would be the best person from our side,” said Jayant Patil.

Patil added that the way people are supporting Yugendra, there will be a different result this time.

Baramati’s bitter feud

Baramati recently witnessed an uphill battle during the Lok Sabha elections between Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar, and Sharad Pawar’s daughter and the sitting MP, Supriya Sule.

The family dispute, spurred by Ajit Pawar’s departure in July 2023, eventually resulted to Sunetra’s defeat, increasing the tension between the family.

Sule received 7,32,312 votes, 45,000 more than she had received in the 2019 elections, giving her a lead over her rival by more than 1.50 lakh votes.

Ajit Pawar later regretted the decision, stating that he should not have left the family or even put his wife up against his cousin.

Shortly after the election, he had told a Marathi news channel that one should not let politics into one’s household.

“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, raising speculation of a possible rapprochement.

However, he faces his nephew from the same seat two months later.

He stated at this time that he was “not interested” in running for office again. This sparked rumours that Jay Pawar, his son, will run for office from Baramati.

Speaking about this, Ajit Pawar had said, “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,” adding that if the parliamentary board and “people” felt that Jay should be fielded, the NCP was ready to field him.

Parth Pawar, the elder son of Ajit Pawar, ran for the Maval Lok Sabha seat in 2019 but was defeated handily.

The split in NCP

Sharad Pawar had founded the NCP with former Lok Sabha Speakers Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999 after their removal from the Congress.

Last July, Ajit Pawar, who had been unhappy with Sharad Pawar’s leadership, left with the majority of MLAs and backed the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena government.

The faction is now part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance.

Earlier, Ajit Pawar remarked that he was being “isolated” in the Pawar family for allying with the BJP-Shiv Sena combine.

Yugendra had refuted the claims by saying, “I don’t think so. No one was isolating the uncle in the family. In fact, Sharad Pawar has always kept politics and family separately.”

With inputs from agencies