NCP Leaders Push Sunetra Pawar As Successor

Mumbai: After the demise of Ajit Pawar in a plane crash, there is growing clamour within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to persuade his wife and Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar to take charge of the party. Announcing her name as the successor, senior NCP minister Narhari Zirwal on Thursday demanded that Sunetra should be made the deputy chief minister of the state.

Meanwhile, senior party leaders like Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde and Sunil Tatkare met Sunetra for leadership talks. They suggested that she should step forward and lead the outfit, which is a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, along with the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

According to the sources, the NCP leaders are pushing to appoint Sunetra as Maharashtra deputy CM, replacing Ajit Pawar’s position in the Mahayuti government. If she does accept the post, she will become the state’s first deputy CM.

Sunetra Pawar, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, is likely to contest the Baramati seat vacated by her late husband, Ajit Pawar, if elections are called, signaling her electoral debut.

Zirwal, who is a FDA Minister and a close confidant of Ajit Pawar, said it is people’s wish that Sunetra Pawar be inducted into the state ministry. “People want ‘vahini’ (sister-in-law, referring to Sunetra Pawar) to be made a cabinet member. We will talk to our leadership about it (inducting Sunetra in cabinet) and take a decision,” he said.

The minister also expressed the possibility of NCP and NCP (SP) coming together. “The two factions are already together (for local body polls). Everyone has realised that there is no point in remaining scattered and we have to be together,” he said.

NCP leader and former minister Nawab Malik emphasised that the final decision on the merger was to be taken by Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar, who heads the NCP (SP). “Now, I cannot predict how politics will take shape. But it is everyone's wish that the entire family and the two parties should come together,” Malik said.

Ajit Pawar (66) and four others were killed when the chartered plane carrying them crashed at the Baramati airport in Pune district on Wednesday. In July 2023, Ajit Pawar had joined the then-Eknath Shinde-led government, triggering a split in the NCP founded by his uncle Sharad Pawar.

However, according to political experts, the reunion of NCP factions will be a tricky issue. Several leaders who went with Ajit Pawar and became ministers in the Mahayuti alliance, had ED investigations against them.

If both factions of the NCP unite under the leadership of Sharad Pawar, who decides to join the BJP-led NDA, these leaders will not oppose it. However, if Pawar decides to remain with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, then leaders like Bhujbal, Patel, Tatkare, Hasan Mushrif and Dhananjay Munde, among others, are likely to face a dilemma. It is also being said that some of these leaders may have no option but to join the BJP to stop the ongoing investigations against them.