NCP leader Sunetra Pawar takes charge as Maharashtra deputy chief minister; to attend cabinet meeting today

MUMBAI: Maharashtra deputy chief Minister Sunetra Pawar on Tuesday assumed charge at the state secretariat, Mantralaya, 13 days after the death of her husband and deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

She was accompanied by senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and her elder son, Parth Pawar, as she took her seat in the deputy chief minister’s office, marking a poignant moment in the state’s political landscape.


Senior NCP leaders, including Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Chhagan Bhujbal and Dhananjay Munde, were present on the occasion.

Sunetra Pawar will attend the cabinet meeting scheduled on Tuesday, the first to be held since Ajit Pawar's death.

She will also participate in the business advisory committee meeting for the February 23 budget session.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar was killed in a plane crash at Baramati in Pune district on January 28.

Sunetra Pawar took oath as the state’s first woman deputy chief minister on January 31. She has been allotted the excise, sports, minority welfare and wakf departments, and has also been appointed guardian minister of Beed and Pune.

She arrived in Mumbai from Pune early on Tuesday and offered prayers at the Siddhivinayak temple and at B R Ambedkar’s memorial, Chaityabhoomi, in the Dadar area.

Accompanied by her elder son, the deputy chief minister later visited the NCP office, where she met party MLAs and ministers, before proceeding to the Mantralaya.

In the first election held on February 7 after the death of Ajit Pawar, his party retained the Pune Zilla Parishad by securing 51 of 73 seats, as per the results declared on Monday. The NCP and Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) had contested together on the 'clock' symbol.

(With agency inputs)