The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday nominated Sunetra Pawar, the wife of Ajit Pawar, to the Rajya Sabha, much to the surprise of other members of the party.

Sunetra had lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election from family turf Baramati, where her sister-in-law Supriya Sule registered her fourth consecutive win.

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The Rajya Sabha by-election has been necessitated due to the resignation of Praful Patel after he was re-elected to the Upper House of Parliament from another seat in February. The election will be held on June 26.

The Rajya Sabha secretariat has notified 10 vacancies in the Upper House, including two each in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra, and one each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tripura.

According to party sources, Chhagan Bhujbal, Anand Paranjape, Baba Siddiqui and Parth Pawar (son of Ajit Pawar) were front-runners for the nomination this time.

Talking to ANI, Bhujbal, the Maharashtra social justice minister, said, “The party’s core group members have unanimously decided to give the Rajya Sabha seat to Sunetra Pawar. Several people, including me, wanted that seat but after discussions, we have decided that Sunetra Pawar should be sent to the Rajya Sabha. I am not at all upset by this decision. We have made this decision for the party…”

“The decision to field Sunetra Pawar was taken by the party’s core group. It was not decided by him (Ajit Pawar) alone. It was a collective decision,” he said.

Elections to six Rajya Sabha seats were held in February and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP had to declare one candidate in accordance with its strength in the legislature.

Sunetra filed her nomination for the bypoll Thursday afternoon in the presence of newly elected Lok Sabha MP Sunil Tatkare, Bhujbal and Narhari Zirwal, deputy speaker of the Maharashtra assembly.

Ajit Pawar split the NCP last July to join Maharashtra’s ruling alliance, the Mahayuti, the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Shinde, too, had parted ways with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena in June 2022 to form the present government with the BJP’s help.

Earlier, Bhujbal was keen on contesting the Lok Sabha polls from the Nashik constituency, but NCP’s alliance partner Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde fielded its candidate from there. The seat was won by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT).