Lok Sabha polls are about future of country, not relations, says Ajit Pawar in Baramati

Pune: The 2024 Lok Sabha polls will decide the future of the country, said Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday in Baramati, where his wife Sunetra Pawar is the ruling alliance candidate.

She is up against three time MP Supriya Sule, who is her sister-in-law and daughter of Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar.

"This election is not about a village or about (familial) relations. This election will decide the future of the country," he said at a rally organised for Sunetra Pawar in Ambegaon, where his party functionaries from Bhor and Velha assembly segments were present.

"Show me open land and I will get a sports complex constructed there. Funds will be granted for the ropeway facility at Raigad fort. The demand to rename Vekha taluka as Raigad was fulfilled. I have worked hard for the Maratha community," the Deputy CM said.

Those who won polls on the 'clock' symbol (of the undivided NCP) used to criticise Narendra Modi, whereas the ones who will win on the symbol this time will support the prime minister, Pawar said.

The NCP split in July last year after Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde government. The Election Commission later gave the party name and 'clock' symbol to his faction while the one led by Sharad Pawar is called NCP(SP) and its symbol is 'man blowing turha'.

"Think calmly about what work they did in the last 15 years and then vote,' Pawar said in an apparent reference to Sule who is MP from Baramati since 2009."