In Baramati, the home turf of the Pawars, it rarely happens that a member of the first family faces vociferous protests during a public rally. But on Thursday, Sunetra Pawar, wife of former deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, had to leave her rally in Baramati mid-way after the crowd hurled a volley of questions on development and infrastructure at her. A day later, she talks to Manoj More about what exactly happened, and why her husband won’t campaign in Baramati, the Assembly constituency from where he is contesting. There were reports that somebody hurled stones at you at Thursday’s rally in Dheklewadi No, that’s not true. There were protests by four-five youths when I went to address a rally. As I was addressing the crowd, they raised their voice. I found it difficult to speak amid the din. We then left the place. What was the immediate provocation? I heard that some Dhangar Kruti Samiti members were protesting. Maybe they wanted to score political points. this is a democracy and everyone has a right to protest. But except for protest by a handful of youths, nothing happened. Weren’t there protests about lack of amenities in their area? In Baramati, we have done so much work that there is hardly any room for complaints. Baramati does not lack public amenities. There is politics behind the protest and I have taken it in my stride. Since you are Ajit’s campaign manager, what is your style of campaigning? My major thrust is on door-to-door campaigning. We do hold corner meetings, but I feel a personal touch with voters is very important. We campaign mostly during morning and then for a few hours in the evening. What do you promise voters? We don’t have to promise voters anything. We never ask for votes. We just have to meet them. I greet them with folded hands and that’s about it. This is because we have provided all kinds of public amenities in Baramati. There is no public project that the Pawar family has not implemented. How many rallies will Ajit address in Baramati? There is no need for my husband to campaign in Baramati. I, scores of our relatives and party supporters are taking care of his campaign. So he will not visit Baramati at all? He inaugurated the election campaign and now he will address the concluding election rally. This is our tradition in Baramati. My husband won’t campaign here. Instead, he will tour the entire state and campaign for other NCP candidates. How do you think your husband will fare? All voters in Baramati are our relatives.We don’t have to worry about the outcome. What do you feel about the allegations levelled against your husband? Any human being would get hurt when baseless allegations are being discussed. But I know this is all politics. If you are in politics, you should be prepared to face such situations. It doesn’t worry my husband as well. Does he get time to himself? No, not at all. He wakes up at 5.30 am and gets on with this work. He does not go for a brisk walk either. He comes late in the night and we hardly get any time to discuss issues. Politics is strictly no-no then.
