CHALLENGING Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in his home turf Baramati, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Tuesday said the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena combine will win the constituency in the 2024 elections along with more than 45 seats in the State.

Hitting back, the NCP said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should stop “daydreaming” to wrest Baramati from sitting MP Supriya Sule. Bawankule is on the Baramati tour to interact with BJP cadres ahead of Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to the constituency.

Baramati in Pune district has been the stronghold of Sharad Pawar who had represented the constituency multiple times. His daughter Supriya Sule is the sitting MP and nephew Ajit Pawar is the MLA.

The BJP has launched a campaign to boost the party’s base in more than 140 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country including Baramati and 15 other seats in Maharashtra. Bawankule told Marathi news channel ‘ABP Majha’ that the BJP has launched a programme to reach out to every voter in these 16 constituencies.

“Given the performance of the Narendra Modi Government in the last eight years and various welfare schemes for the poor launched by the Centre and the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis Government, I am confident that we will change the opinion of the people. Once the opinion of people is changed big fortresses fall,” he said.