Mumbai: Sunetra Pawar, the wife of late Ajit Pawar, has accepted the request of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP - Ajit Pawar) MLAs to be the next Maharashtra
Deputy Chief Minister, sources quoted party leader Chhagan Bhujbal on Friday. Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha MP and not a member of the either house of the state legislature. However, the Baramati assembly seat in Pune district has fallen vacant after Ajit Pawar's death. According to sources, a legislative party meeting of the NCP will be held on Saturday to name Sunetra Pawar as their leader. The oath-taking is also likely to be held tomorrow. Chhagan Bhujbal said the legislature party meeting of the NCP will be held on January 31, where late Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra will be named as its leader. Talking to reporters at the NCP office, Bhujbal said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has conveyed that he has no issues if her oath-taking ceremony as the deputy CM takes place on Saturday itself provided a decision to that effect is taken by the legislature wing of the party.
Sunetra Pawar Is Currently A Rajya Sabha MP
Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha MP and 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 in a plane crash on Wednesday.
"The legislature party meeting of the NCP will be convened on Saturday, where Sunetra Pawar will be named as its leader. Many leaders want her to become the deputy CM," Bhujbal said.
The most important thing is to fill the vacant post of the legislature party leader and subsequently that of the deputy CM, he said.
"(Senior NCP leaders) Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare are looking into the technicalities of the mourning period and other finer details...Sometimes, there is a three-day mourning period and sometimes ten days," the food and civil supplies minister said.
He, however, added that the final decision will be taken in the legislature party meeting.
What Are Praful Patel's Views on Sunetra Pawar
Earlier, the Nationalist Congress Party working president Praful Patel said there is no opposition to Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra becoming the new leader of the NCP legislature wing, but the family consent will be taken before filling the key post.
Patel’s remarks came amid statements by some party leaders who said Sunetra, a Rajya Sabha member, is likely to be the new NCP legislature party leader and also the deputy CM.
Patel, a former Union minister, said right now the priority is to fill the vacant posts of Deputy CM and NCP legislature party leader, both held by Ajit Pawar at the time of his death in an air crash on January 28, and added that making appointment at the top organisational position (the late leader was also party president) was not an issue currently.
Talking to reporters, Patel said party leaders met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to apprise him that the NCP, a key constituent of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, is in the process of finalising its leadership transition.
Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar Dies in Plane Crash
Ajit Pawar and four other persons on board a chartered aircraft were killed after it crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of a tabletop runway at Baramati airport in Pune district on Wednesday.
The others killed in the tragedy were Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flying experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Capt. Shambhavi Pathak with 1,500 hours of flying, Personal Security Officer (PSO) Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
The aircraft, a Learjet, was cleared for landing in Baramati on Wednesday morning after a go-around due to poor visibility, but having finally received a clearance it did not give any read-back' to the ATC, and moments later burst into flames on the edge of the runway.
With inputs from PTI
