As PM Modi blew the poll bugle in Maharashtra with a rally in Vidarbha on April 8, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar chastised him for being intolerant of dissent, remarking that Mr. Modi had centralised power and sent people to jail for speaking against him.
Addressing a rally during campaigning in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency – the stronghold of the Pawar clan, the 83-year-old Mr. Pawar also took potshots at his nephew, rebel NCP leader Ajit Pawar who has aligned with the ruling BJP in Maharashtra.
Mr. Pawar’s daughter, three-term, incumbent Baramati MP Supriya Sule, is pitted against Ajit’s Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar, who is the ruling Mahayuti’s candidate. The Baramati fight is arguably the State’s most keenly watched “prestige face-off”.