Shinde-Fadnavis ‘wedged’ between Pawar Chacha-Bhatija in Baramati event

Pune: Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis shall be virtually ‘sandwiched’ between the warring uncle-nephew duo of Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar at the 2-day NaMo Maharojgar Melava opening in their hometown Baramati here on Saturday.

As per the tentative seating arrangements for several dignitaries on the stage, Fadnavis-Shinde shall be flanked by Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar on the left and Nationalist Congress Party President and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar on the right.

Sharad Pawar (83) whose name did not even figure on the original invitation card, suddenly catapulted onto the centre stage after he crafted a ‘chai-pe-charcha’ invite for Shinde and his entire cabinet, and later dinner for the CM and the two Deputy CMs at his Govindbaugh residence.

As eyebrows went up all over at the glaring ‘omission’, the state government quietly commissioned a new invitation card on March 1, in which Sharad Pawar’s name was included prominently for the official programme at the Vidya Pratisthan campus later this morning.

However, the CM and Deputy CMs have politely declined Pawar’s hospitality – both at the campus and at home – citing various reasons.

Nevertheless, as the row seemed to have subsided, the bewildered Baramatikars were still left debating who took the cake from the controversy, as the town was plastered with posters and banners of the MahaYuti government.

Besides the job fare, Baramati shall get a swank new renovated bus depot of the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation and a new police station on Saturday.

Spread over a 12-acre campus, the prestigious Vidya Pratishthan was founded by Sharad Pawar 52 years ago and he is the current President, with the other committee members being his daughter Supriya Sule, a grand-nephew Yugendra S. Pawar, nephew Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra Ajit Pawar, among others.