Rajya Sabha member and wife of late Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar, Sunetra Pawar, reached Mumbai on Saturday, where she will be sworn in as Maharashtra’s first woman Deputy Chief Minister.
She reached Devgiri, the official residence of Ajit Pawar in south Mumbai, in the wee hours, accompanied by son Parth.
The 62-year-old, who is not a member of either house of the Maharashtra legislature, will be elected as leader of the legislature wing of the NCP at a meeting in Mumbai on Saturday afternoon, before she replaces her deceased husband as the state deputy CM.
On Saturday, senior party leader Chhagan Bhujbal said the NCP’s legislature wing will hold a meeting in Mumbai where Sunetra would be named as its leader.
While talk of an imminent merger of NCP and NCP (SP) – the faction headed by party founder Sharad Pawar – was gaining ground following Ajit Pawar’s death in an air crash on Wednesday, sources in NCP (SP) and Sharad Pawar’s family said they were unaware of Sunetra’s decision to join the BJP-led Mahayuti government.
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“The NCP (SP) leadership and Sharad Pawar’s family members were completely in the dark about her plans,” a source said.
However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP, which heads the ruling alliance Mahayuti, would support any decision taken by the family and party of late Ajit Pawar.
“The NCP will take whatever decision it has to take for the post of deputy chief minister, and we will support the decision. We are standing behind the family of Ajit Dada and the NCP,” Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur on Friday.
Until the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in which Sunetra contested from Baramati as the candidate of her husband’s party, she had kept a low profile. But, she was defeated by her sister-in-law and incumbent NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule in the prestige battle. Sunetra was then elected to the Rajya Sabha.
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