Ajit Pawar’s death may expedite reunification of two NCP factions
Mumbai/Pune: Sunetra Pawar, Rajya Sabha MP and the wife of deceased NCP chief Ajit Pawar, is likely to be sworn in as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday, party sources said.
She would be the first woman to hold the post in the state.
Following the death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in an air crash in Baramati on Wednesday, a section of Nationalist Congress Party leaders had demanded that she should get the post.
“Tomorrow, a parliamentary board meeting of the party will take place in Mumbai, where Sunetra Pawar will be elected as the leader of the legislature party,” said a source.
“It is likely that she will be sworn in as deputy chief minister by tomorrow evening,” said the source, privy to the developments.
Until the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Sunetra Pawar had kept a low profile. In the general elections that year, she stood from Baramati as the candidate of her husband’s party, but was defeated by her sister-in-law and incumbent NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule in the prestige battle. Sunetra was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha.
The legislature wing of the NCP in Maharashtra will hold a meeting in Mumbai on January 31 where she would be named as its leader, state minister and senior party leader Chhagan Bhujbal said earlier on Friday.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had conveyed that he had no issue if her swearing-in ceremony as Deputy CM took place on Saturday itself, provided a decision to that effect was taken by the party, said Bhujbal.
Sunetra Pawar is currently not a member of either House of the Maharashtra legislature. However, the Baramati assembly seat in Pune district has fallen vacant after Ajit Pawar’s death. “Many leaders want her to become the deputy CM,” Bhujbal told reporters.
The tally of NCP in the 288-member state assembly came down to 40 with Ajit Pawar’s death.
Meanwhile, the sudden death of Ajit Pawar is likely to accelerate the reunification of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is likely after the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti election results.
Despite the tragedy, negotiators from both, the ruling NCP and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) confirm that the process is “very much on course”.
