&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra elected NCP’s National President, to contest Baramati bye-election")
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar was elected as the National President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at the party’s national executive meeting on Thursday. She succeeds her late husband, Ajit Pawar, who held the position until his tragic death in a plane crash. Ajit Pawar was also deputy chief minister.
Sunetra Pawar assumed the office of party president following a unanimous decision by party MLAs and senior leaders.
Addressing party leaders and delegates at the national convention, senior NCP leader Praful Patel delivered an emotional speech and said that there was complete clarity and unity among party leaders on the way forward.
Patel formally proposed Sunetra Pawar’s name. The proposal received unanimous support from all leaders and delegates present at the convention. Following this, Sunetra Pawar was officially declared the national president of the NCP, marking a new chapter in the party’s leadership and organisational journey.
Sunetra is also contesting the bye-election from Baramati, a seat that was represented by Ajit Pawar eight times.
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She was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on January 31, becoming the first woman to hold the office in the state’s history.
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Before her swearing-in as deputy chief minister, she was unanimously elected as the leader of the NCP Legislative Party to fill the sudden leadership vacuum in the party.
The NCP performed well in the recent local elections and won the Pune Zilla Parishad. It also improved its position in Kolhapur and several panchayat samitis.
Ajit Pawar served as Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister six times in different coalition governments over the years. Ajit was long considered the obvious successor to his uncle, Sharad Pawar, as party chief and often found it difficult to step out of his uncle’s shadow.
In 2019, his first attempt to rebel following some internal frictions did not succeed. But in 2023, he played a key role in a major political shift in Maharashtra. He split from the NCP, created his own faction, and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as they came to power in the state.
As the NCP was split into two, Ajit Pawar’s camp kept the party’s name and symbol and brought along several senior leaders and MLAs, weakening his uncle’s influence. After the BJP-led alliance won the 2024 state elections, Ajit Pawar was again appointed deputy chief minister.
