NEW DELHI, Jan 30: Sunetra Pawar, the wife of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar, who was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday will be inducted in the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet in Maharashtra as a deputy chief minister in place of her husband.
The NP sources said Sunetra Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP, will take oath as Maharashtra deputy chief minister on Saturday. The development comes even as the NCP leaders were mulling a ‘bigger’ role for Sunetra Pawar.
A meeting of the NCP legislature party has also been called on Saturday where Ms Pawar will be named the leader to pave way for her induction in the cabinet, Maharashtra minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said. She may not, however, get all the portfolios handled by her husband. Sources said to begin with she may be given Excise and sports portfolio, while the Finance portfolio will be taken over by Fadnavis himself.
Chhagan Bhujbal, while speaking to reporters, said Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has conveyed that he has no issues if Sunetra’s oath-taking ceremony as the deputy CM takes place on Saturday.
“The legislature party meeting of the NCP will be convened on Saturday, where Sunetra Pawar will be named as its leader. Many leaders want her to become the deputy CM,” Bhujbal said. Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from NCP and not a member of either house of the Maharashtra legislature. However, she can be elected in a byelection to the Assembly from Baramati seat which has fallen vacant due to her husband’s death.
(Manas Dasgupta)
