NCP meeting on Jan 31 to name Sunetra Pawar party leader: Bhujbal

Chhagan Bhujbal says CM Fadnavis has no objection to Sunetra Pawar's swearing-in as deputy chief minister if legislature party clears the move

Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Friday 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 Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) office here, 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 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.