Mumbai: Despite a call by her father and NCP minister Dharmaraobaba Atram to the voters of Aheri constituency in Maoist-infested Gadchiroli to throw her in the Pranhita river, Bhagyashree Atram Halgekar is all set to join the NCP-SP led by Sharad Pawar on September 12.
Bhagyashree is expected to contest the upcoming assembly election against her father and the NCP minister Dharmaraobaba Atram from his home turf, the Aheri assembly constituency in the Gadchiroli district. It will be for the first time in Maharashtra politics a fight between a father and a daughter is likely to take place in the upcoming Assembly elections.
NCP sources confirmed Bhagyashree’s induction into its party fold.
Sources further said that Bhagyashree has already held talks with senior party leaders about her move to join the party.
Bhagyashree’s move is crucial as she is determined to checkmate her father and encash the anti-incumbency against the MahaYuti government from the Aheri constituency.
Atram is a veteran tribal leader who was born into the royal family of Aheri.
He was elected to the state assembly in the 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2019 elections.
He had been associated with the NCP since its formation, but in June 2023, he deserted NCP founder Sharad Pawar and joined the Ajit Pawar faction.
On September 6 during the NCP national president and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s Jansanman Yatra, Atram sparked a major controversy after he urged the people from his assembly to throw his daughter Bhagyashree and son-in-law Rituraj Halgekar in the nearby Pranhita river for treachery by joining hands with Sharad Pawar led NCP-SP.
“People leave the party but there is no need to pay attention to them. Some people in our house want to join another party by using my clout. For 40 years, people have engineered defections in state politics. Now the Sharad Pawar group leaders want to divide my house and pitch my daughter against me. Don’t trust them. Don’t trust my son-in-law and daughter,” said Atram in his speech amid loud applause and slogans.
“These people have ditched me. Everyone should throw them in the nearby Pranhita river. What is going on? They are taking my daughter to their side and pitting her against her father. A girl who could not become a daughter of her father, how can she become yours? You have to think about it. What justice will she give to you? Don’t trust them. In politics, I will not see this as my daughter, brother or sister,” said Atram, who is expected to be the party’s nominee from the Aheri assembly segment in the coming election.
“Even if one daughter deserts me, another daughter is with me. My son is also with me. A brother of mine is also with me. My cousin’s son is also with me. The whole family has gathered behind me,” he said, sending a message to his daughter that he was not worried about his poll prospects.
However, NCP national president Ajit Pawar had appealed to Bhagyashree not to desert his father and thereby divide the family.
Despite Pawar’s advice, Bhagyashree is firm on her plan to ditch her father and join the NCP-SP.
(Sanjay Jog can be contacted at sanjay.j@ians.in)
–IANS