Deora backs Sule to takeover from Pawar

Mumbai: Congress leader Milind Deora Friday said that three-time Lok Sabha MP from Baramati, Supriya Sule, is the “rightful heir” to the “great legacy” of her father and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar.

Mr Deora said that he shares Ms Sule’s principles that social work and policy change are the path to political empowerment and development.

“Supriya_Sule is the rightful heir to her father's great legacy. She is effective because she believes that social work and policy change are the path to political empowerment. I share these values and admire her for staying the course (sic),” Mr Deora tweeted. The former Mumbai south MP made the comment while replying to a tweet.

Baramati is the bastion of the Pawars. Media reports in the past have claimed that there is competition between Ms Sule and her cousin and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to inherit the 79-year-old NCP patriarch's legacy.

Sharad Pawar, whose political career spans 52 years, has been a four-time chief minister of Maharashtra and also served as a minister in the Union Cabinet where he handled key portfolios like defence and agriculture. He co-founded the NCP after quitting the Congress in 1999 over Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin issue.

The NCP, which spent the last five years in the Opposition, is a key constituent of the three-party alliance, Maha Vikas Aghadi, which formed the government in Maharashtra Thursday.

The Shiv Sena and the Indian National Congress are the other main partners of the ruling coalition.