Sunetra Pawar takes oath as Maharashtra's 1st woman deputy Chief Minister

Following her husband, deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's death in an air crash in Baramati on January 28, the NCP elected her as the leader of its legislature wing

Sunetra Pawar on Saturday became the first woman Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and was allotted excise, sports, minority development and Aukaf departments, but not finance and planning which her late husband Ajit Pawar held.

 

The brief swearing-in ceremony at the Lok Bhavan here took place three days after Ajit Pawar, NCP president and a deputy chief minister in the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP 'Mahayuti' government, died in an air crash in Baramati on January 28.

 

Finance and planning department was not allocated to her, indicating that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will hold the charge of the crucial portfolio and present the Budget next month.

 

 

Sunetra Pawar, 62, has resigned her Rajya Sabha membership. She is not a member of either house of the state legislature at present, and is expected to contest the byelection to the Baramati assembly constituency represented by her late husband.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his best wishes to Sunetra Pawar, expressing confidence that she will work tirelessly for welfare of the people and carry forward her late husband's dream.

 

After taking the oath of office, Sunetra, a commerce graduate born into a political family who mostly stayed away from politics until 2024 (when she contested the Lok Sabha election from Baramati against her sister-in-law Supriya Sule and lost), vowed to carry forward her husband's people-centric legacy and work with a sense of duty to serve the state.

 

Ajit Pawar's commitment to duty, spirit of struggle and honesty towards the people would remain her guiding strength, she added.

 

Besides Sunetra Pawar's younger son Jay Pawar and his wife, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and NCP leaders Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal were present at the ceremony where she was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Acharya Devvrat.

 

Nobody from party patriarch and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar's family were present.

 

The Nationalist Congress Party, which elected her as the new leader of its legislature wing earlier in the day, remained tight-lipped about the proposed merger of the two factions.

 

Speaking to reporters in Baramati in the morning, Sharad Pawar said he learnt about the swearing-in from the news, and he had not been consulted about Sunetra Pawar's decision to join the state cabinet.

 

It was his late nephew Ajit's wish to unite the two factions, and "now it is our wish that his wish should be fulfilled," Pawar said, while admitting that the process might hit a roadblock due to his sudden death.

 

Ajit Pawar and NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil had been holdings talks on the merger roadmap, Sharad Pawar revealed.

 

But while NCP leaders Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare maintained silence on the issue, Union minister Piyush Goyal in an interview to PTI said he did not expect the merger of the two NCPs to take place.

 

The leadership of the NCP has passed on to Sunetra Pawar and Praful Patel has been appointed its national president, Goyal said, adding that Sharad Pawar had lost the people's trust and vote.