Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar on Saturday took oath as Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, replacing her husband Ajit Pawar, who was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday.
The 62-year-old is the state’s first woman deputy chief minister.
The Nationalist Congress Party leader is not a member of the state’s Assembly or the Legislative Council and will need to get elected to either of the Houses within six months.
Earlier on Saturday, Sunetra Pawar was elected as the leader of the legislative party of the NCP faction that Ajit Pawar led.
Ajit Pawar died when a small aircraft crashed near an airstrip in Baramati town during its second attempt to land after having initiated a go-around. Two pilots, a flight attendant and Ajit Pawar’s security officer were the others who died in the incident.
The cause of the crash was unclear. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, a unit of the civil aviation ministry, is investigating the incident.
In 2023, Ajit Pawar, along with several party MLAs, joined Maharashtra’s Mahayuti coalition government comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde.
The move had led to a split in the NCP, with one faction supporting him and the other backing his uncle and party founder Sharad Pawar.
The two NCP factions had earlier this month contested the municipal elections in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad in an alliance.
Sunetra Pawar had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Baramati as the Ajit Pawar-led NCP group’s candidate but was defeated by her sister-in-law, Supriya Sule, from the rival faction. She became a Rajya Sabha member in June 2024.
Party politics
Sunetra Pawar became the deputy chief minister amid talks between the two NCP factions about a merger.
On Saturday morning, Sharad Pawar told reporters that he had been unaware about Sunetra Pawar’s decision to become the deputy chief minister. He added that Ajit Pawar wanted the NCP factions to merge, confirming speculation that the two groups were already working to reunite.
Jayant Patil, the state chief of Sharad Pawar’s faction, claimed on Saturday that leaders of the other group, including Sunil Tatkare, Praful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal, had been aware of the impending merger, The Hindu reported.
The newspaper quoted Patil as saying that the last round of meetings with Ajit Pawar had taken place on January 16 and January 17. It had been decided at the time that a formal announcement about the merger would be made on February 12, he claimed.
However, Tatkare, the president of the Ajit Pawar faction, told reporters on Saturday that the January 17 meeting was to discuss local body elections and that there had been no talks about a merger, NDTV reported.
On Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the BJP would support any decision taken by Ajit Pawar’s family and the NCP, PTI reported.
Just 0.2% of readers pay for news. The others don’t care if it dies. You can help make a difference. Support independent journalism – join Scroll now.
We’re not driven by clicks or corporate interests – just honest, independent reporting. Keep us going. Support Scroll today!