Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar will not contest the Lok Sabha elections 2019 stating that two members of his family are already contesting the polls.
“I thought that already two members of my family are contesting polls this time and hence I felt this is right time to take decision to not contest, since I already have contested 14 times in the past,” the 78-year-old Pawar told reporters at a press conference in Mumbai.
A formal announcement in yet to be made, but the decision comes after the NCP finalised seat-sharing arrangements with the Congress in Maharashtra.
The former Union Minister was expected to contest from the Madha Lok Sabha seat in southwest Maharashtra.
As per the seat-sharing arrangement, Congress retained 26 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and NCP got the remaining 22. Maharashtra has 48 seats in the Lok Sabha, the second-highest in the country after Uttar Pradesh.
Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP, is one of the most powerful leaders in national politics and has served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra on three occasions.
He had earlier said that he would contest the elections but not his family members.
“Parth Pawar, Rohit Pawar and Ajit Pawar would not contest Lok Sabha election. But Sharad Pawar is going to contest,” Pawar was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Reports say that Parth Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s grandson and son of former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, will contest Lok Sabha elections as NCP candidate from Maval constituency. An official announcement is yet to be made.
In the 2014 general elections, NCP won four seats in Maharashtra – Madha, Satara, Kolhapur and Baramati. The last constituency is a stronghold of the Pawar family and is the parliamentary seat of Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule.