Will Sunetra Pawar be Maharashtra’s next deputy CM? NCP leaders rally behind Ajit Pawar's wife for top role

Rajya Sabha MP and Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar. (File photo)

As the party stares at a political vacuum left following the death of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in Baramati, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction leaders met his wife Sunetra Pawar and are believed to have backed her to step up as party president of the NCP.

Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha member. NCP working president Praful Patel, state chief Sunil Tatkare and cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal met her to offer condolences and reportedly pressed her to join the Mahayuti government and lead NCP's Ajit Pawar faction, sources said, according to a report by The Times of India.

The leaders have also reportedly urged her to step up as the deputy CM and fill in her late husband's shoes.

Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra FDA minister Narhari Zirwal on Thursday told the news agency PTI that the public wants Sunetra Pawar to be brought into the state ministry.

When asked about the NCP’s future after Ajit Pawar’s death, Zirwal said that people want “vahini" (sister-in-law, referring to Sunetra Pawar) to be included in the ministry. “We will talk to the leadership about it and take a decision," Zirwal, who was a close confidant of Ajit Pawar, said after the leader’s funeral in Baramati.

Party functionaries said a meeting is expected in Mumbai soon to choose the NCP legislature party leader. "The immediate priority is to stabilize," a senior member said.

Meanwhile, at Pawar's bastion, the party wants either of his son's - Parth or Jay - to contest the Baramati bypolls, a seat left vacant due to Ajit Pawar's death, TOI reported.

Ajit Pawar’s faction of NCP is currently a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, along with the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Baramati plane crash

NCP chief Ajit Pawar died in a chartered plane crash while travelling from Mumbai to Baramati on Wednesday, sending shockwaves across the entire nation.

Pawar was on his way to Baramati to campaign for the February 5 Zilla Panchayat elections. Pawar and four others were killed in the crash.