Blow for Ajit Pawar as Atram’s daughter joins NCP (SP)

Mumbai: In yet another family tussle ahead of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls, Food and Drug Administration Minister Dharmarao Baba Atram’s daughter Bhagyashree Atram Halgekar said goodbye to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and joined the NCP (SP) spearheaded by Sharad Pawar.

Bhagyashree may be fielded from Gadchiroli district’s Aheri seat, which is currently represented by her father.

Bhagyashree formally joined the NCP (SP) in presence of the party’s state unit President Jayant Patil and senior leader Anil Deshmukh.

Aheri is affected by Naxalism.

This comes as a major jolt to Ajit Pawar ahead of the Vidhan Sabha polls.

“When my father was abducted by Naxalites, it was Sharad Pawar Saheb who secured his safe release,” she said referring to the 1991 incident. “This is my way of paying gratitude for saving my father,” she said.

The development takes place days after Dharmarao Baba Atram urged voters in Aheri to throw his daughter Bhagyashree and son-in-law Rituraj Halgekar in the Pranhita river for ‘treachery’.

The comments, incidentally, have come before Ajit Pawar, during his Jan Sanman Yatra.

"Don't trust my son-in-law and daughter…These people have ditched me. Everyone should throw them in the nearby Pranhita River,” the senior Atram has said.