“Ek-e Saheb, Pawar Saheb.” The slogan reverberates inside the large banquet hall at Ghotwade before Supriya Sule arrives for the afternoon campaign meeting.

“Pawar Saheb” or “Pawar Sir” is Sule’s octogenarian father Sharad Pawar, who has held sway over Baramati, about 100km from Pune, for decades but now faces a challenge from within the family.

Prakash Bhegade, a local Shiv Sena leader of the Uddhav Thackeray faction, present at the meeting to show the Opposition alliance was working well on the ground, says when the people say there’s only one Saheb, they mean “Boss to ek hi hai, Pawar Saheb’.

Sule is contesting to retain Baramati for the fourth time in a row but the battle at
hand is actually for “Pawar Saheb” to prove that he still remains “The Boss” in this family borough.

So far, the man known as one of the shrewdest politicians in India has been outfoxed by his own nephew, Ajit Pawar. The nephew, who grew under his patronage and tutelage, has run away with the MLAs and the NCP symbol, the clock, to the BJP. The party founded by “Pawar Saheb” has virtually been hijacked by the nephew.

A man blows a trumpet, the symbol of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction, outside Sule's campaign meeting venue. The Telegraph

“Bolo Ram Krishna Hari, wazwan tutari (Chant Ram, Krishna Hari and blow the trumpet),” Sule, seen as Pawar’s heir apparent, chants during her campaign to popularise the new symbol allotted to the NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction — that of a man blowing a trumpet.

Sule, who had an easy run for the last three elections, faces a challenge from her wily cousin Ajit, who has pitted his wife Sunetra Pawar to turn the fight for Baramati into a prestige battle.

But behind the scenes, the battle is really between “chacha” (uncle) senior Pawar and “bhatija” (nephew) Ajit. The contest is two-fold: to decide who lords over this cash-rich sugar industry-dominated western Maharashtra constituency and more importantly, who controls the NCP, built from scratch by “Pawar Saheb”.

Across this mostly rural constituency, where the Pawar family has had an unchallenged sway for over five decades, the family fight has left the voters torn and confused.

“The battle here is a tough one. People are attending the meetings of both the sides (uncle and nephew) and assuring each of their support but ultimately which way the majority of the voters swing will be known only on June 4,” says Somenath Jadhav, a local, manning the cash counter at a hotel in Baramati.

Jadhav underlines that “Dada”, as the junior Pawar is referred to here, has a lot of hold over Baramati since “Pawar Saheb” and Supriya Sule had left the local “political management” to him to focus on Delhi. Sule in fact used to bank on “Dada’s” ground level management to win Baramati without too much effort.

“Pawar Saheb is getting old and his daughter mostly remains in Delhi. We have to depend on Ajit Dada for our local problems,” says Sunil Jadhav, a trader in Baramati, narrating many stories of how “Dada” controls the politics and economics of
the region.

Sule and her poll managers, however, are banking on the sympathy factor and the “emotional connect” of “Pawar Saheb” to sway the voters.

“In our culture, it is ‘paap’ (sin) to give pain and suffering to the elders. What Ajit Dada is doing to Pawar Saheb, his uncle who made him so big, is ‘maha paap’,” says Nikhil Gade, an elder of Morgaon.

In and around the Baramati Assembly segment, represented by Ajit himself, the sympathy factor appears to be strong for “Pawar Saheb”. Not only the elders, even many younger voters say they were with the senior Pawar.

“Ajit Dada has gone to the BJP out of fear. He has chosen the BJP’s washing machine because of the corruption charges against him,” says Popat Khandekar of Supa village, who works at a hotel in Pune.

This narrative of the junior Pawar virtually “back-stabbing” his uncle not only out of fear of landing in jail in corruption cases he faces, but also to emerge as the boss of the NCP runs strong among the voters.

“The ‘tutari’ will stop the ‘ghadi’ (clock),” says Sunil Gade, a Maratha who is
angry that “Dada” didn’t back the Maratha reservation agitation.

Of the six Assembly segments under Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, two are represented by the BJP and two by the Congress. Of the remaining two, Baramati has Ajit himself and the Indapur MLA is also with him. The Ajit faction also has the full backing of the BJP election machinery, eyeing to end the Pawar family’s domination.

“MLAs may have gone with Ajit Pawar but most party workers and most importantly the voters remain with Pawar Saheb,” claimed Sharad Raghunath Pawar, Pune district secretary of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) faction.

• Baramati votes on May 7