Supriya Sule is a member of the Nationalist Congress Party’s national committee and a three-time member of parliament from Maharashtra’s Baramati constituency. Sule—the daughter of Sharad Pawar, the NCP chief and veteran Maratha politician—is one of the most prominent leaders of the party. Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, scheduled for 21 October, the NCP entered into an alliance with the Congress. In the Lok Sabha elections, the NCP won just four seats in Maharashtra, and the Congress only one, while the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance won 41 of the total 48 seats.
On 16 October, in an interview at her Mumbai office with Tushar Dhara, a reporting fellow with The Caravan, Sule discussed the NCP-Congress alliance’s preparation for the elections, the BJP’s campaign strategy and the issues that are missing from the ongoing electoral politics.
Tushar Dhara: The NCP’s stronghold is western Maharashtra. The BJP has tried to penetrate this bastion, and a lot of leaders from the NCP and the Congress have switched over to the BJP. Do you expect seats from any other region?
Supriya Sule: We will still do well, it doesn’t matter. They were leaders, the party made them. Time will tell how long they survive on their own, whether they will win this. We have put up a lot of new candidates, good MLAs who are still with us—they will win. We will get seats from all over the state, and even western Maharashtra.
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