Who after Ajit Pawar? Wife Sunetra, son Parth in focus as NCP succession takes centrestage

Ajit Pawar with wife Sunetra and son Parth. (File: X/@parthajitpawar)

• Ajit Pawar dies in Baramati plane crash, leaving Maharashtra in mourning
• Focus shifts to Sunetra Pawar and Parth Pawar for NCP's future leadership
• Sunetra, a Rajya Sabha MP, may play a key role in party and family succession

Did our AI summary help?

The untimely demise of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party supremo Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in Baramati has not only plunged the state into mourning but thrown the spotlight on his family, particularly his wife Sunetra Pawar and elder son Parth Pawar.

A towering political figure, Pawar's death has set off a flurry of speculation about political succession within one of the state's most enduring dynasties. Pawar, 66, died when the chartered jet he was travelling in crash-landed while attempting to touch down at Baramati Airport. None of the five people on board survived.

While tributes have poured in across party and ideological lines, attention is also rapidly shifting to the next political chapter for the NCP as well as the Pawar family, particularly Sunetra, his wife and a Rajya Sabha MP, and Parth Pawar, his elder son, whose public profile has grown in recent years.

While both tried their luck in the recent Lok Sabha elections and lost, their presence in Maharashtra's polity will be crucial for the symbolism it carries in terms of the sentiment attached to the Pawar clan.

Sunetra Pawar, a Rajya Sabha member and now Ajit Pawar's widow, is now seen as a central figure in discussions about continuity. Apart from her parliamentary role, she chairs the Baramati Textile Company and serves as CEO of the Environmental Forum of India.

She contested the Lok Sabha elections from Baramati, a seat long associated with the Pawar dynasty, but lost. Nevertheless, her stature within the family and party circles, amplified by her legislative experience, positions her as a key interlocutor in the coming days as leaders and party workers chart a way forward.

Within the Pawar clan's broader network, which traces its political roots to the cooperative movement in Baramati and the towering legacy of Ajit's uncle Sharad Pawar, Sunetra's role may evolve from symbolic to operational leadership.

Another key figure to watch out for in the coming days is Parth Pawar, Ajit Pawar's elder son, who has kept a relatively low profile in frontline politics but comes from the core lineage of one of Maharashtra's most powerful political families.

Before his father's death, Parth had attracted media and political attention in 2025 over a high-profile land deal in Pune's Mundhwa area, where his business interests were linked to questions over valuation and stamp duty exemptions. Though his name did not appear in the FIR filed over the matter, the episode underscored how Parth's activities were beginning to intersect with public and political scrutiny.

Parth has not been a frontline electoral politician, but in the wake of this tragedy, speculation is growing that he may be drawn more directly into political roles — both to carry on the family's political legacy and to provide a generational anchor for supporters and allies of the Pawar faction within shifting equations.

The sudden vacuum caused by Ajit Pawar's death, a leader who once broke away from his uncle Sharad Pawar's faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to align with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in 2023, will influence not just the Pawar family but also the balance of power in the state.

In a scenario such as this, the emergence of Sunetra as a stabilising elder figure and Parth as a potential long-term successor, should he choose to embrace active politics, cannot be ruled out. Senior leaders from allied parties and Pawar loyalists are now assessing how best to balance continuity with new leadership dynamics in the months ahead.

The coming days are likely to see conversations intensify over whether family legacy, electoral strategy or organisational leadership should shape the post-Ajit Pawar landscape, with Sunetra and Parth Pawar at the centre of that debate.