Mumbai:
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar is likely to be sworn in as Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday, party sources said. The development comes two days after the post fell vacant following the death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in Baramati.
According to sources, the NCP will hold a legislature party meeting at the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai at 2 pm on Saturday to formally finalise her name as the party’s legislature leader. The swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place later in the evening. If appointed, Sunetra Pawar will become the first woman to hold the post of Deputy Chief Minister in Maharashtra.
Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal indicated earlier that Sunetra Pawar was the leading contender for the position. He stated that there was broad agreement within the party that she should be entrusted with the responsibility vacated by her husband.
“Many people believe that Sunetra Pawar should be given this responsibility, and I don’t think that demand is unreasonable,” Bhujbal said. He added that the primary purpose of the legislature party meeting would be to elect the new leader.
NCP working president Praful Patel also noted that there was no opposition within the party to Sunetra Pawar’s appointment, suggesting internal consensus on the leadership transition.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government would respect the NCP’s internal decision. “The decision will be taken by the NCP, and we will stand by it. Be it the NCP or the Pawar family, we as the government and the BJP stand strongly with them,” he said.
Sunetra Pawar is currently a member of the Rajya Sabha and is not a member of either house of the Maharashtra legislature. Party leaders indicated that procedural requirements would be addressed following her appointment.
Ajit Pawar, 66, died on Wednesday morning when a chartered aircraft carrying him crashed while attempting to land at Baramati airport. All five people on board, including his personal security officer, a flight attendant, and two pilots, were killed in the accident.
He was cremated with full state honours at the Vidya Pratishthan College ground near Baramati on Thursday, in the presence of senior political leaders and thousands of supporters. His ashes were immersed on Friday at the confluence of the Nira and Karha rivers.
The sudden death has renewed political speculation regarding a possible reunification of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party. Ajit Pawar, once seen as the political heir to his uncle Sharad Pawar, had split the party in 2023. However, both factions recently contested civic elections in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad together.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Police have confirmed that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will lead the probe into the accidental death case registered in Baramati.