Ajit Pawar Cremated with Full State Honours, NCP Looking for Bigger Role for Sunetra Pawar

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Jan 29: The last rites of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who died in a plane crash on Wednesday at the age of 66, were held with full state honours on Thursday at his home town Baramati in Pune district.

Union Ministers Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, former Union Minister and his uncle Sharad Pawar and BJP president Nitin Nabin attended the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief’s funeral at the Vidya Pratishthan ground at Baramati, around 100 km from Pune.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde were also present, along with Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra, who is a Rajya Sabha member, and sons Parth and Jay. Ajit Pawar’s cousin Supriya Sule, Lok Sabha member from Baramati, and NCP working president and former Union Minister Praful Patel were also present. Thousands of people gathered for Ajit Pawar’s last rites chanted “Ajit Dada amar rahe“, when his mortal remains, draped in the national flag, were brought from his village Katewadi to the Vidya Pratishthan ground. Parth and Jay lit their father’s funeral pyre.

On Thursday morning, the mortal remains of Ajit Pawar were taken from the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Hospital in Baramati, where they were kept overnight, to his village. Pawar and four other persons on board the aircraft were killed after it crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of the tabletop airstrip.

The others killed in the tragedy were Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flying experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Capt. Shambhavi Pathak with 1,500 hours of flying, Personal Security Officer (PSO) Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali. Their mortal remains have been handed over to their families, hospital sources said.

Police have registered an accidental death report (ADR) case in connection with the plane crash, an official said. The government Wednesday released a statement detailing the sequence of events that led to the crash and Ajit Pawar’s death.

Meanwhile, following Ajit Pawar’s death, the NCP is said to be eying a bigger role for his wife Sunetra Pawar, currently a member of the Rajya Sabha. Hours after Ajit Pawar’s funeral, a meeting in Baramati has fuelled talk that the NCP has begun planning its future strategy.

NCP leaders Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal and Dhananjay Munde met Sunetra Pawar. While sources said they urged her to take up the deputy chief minister’s post, Bhujbal said it was a courtesy meeting and no political discussion had taken place.

Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra FDA Minister Narhari Zirwal said the people of the state want Sunetra Pawar to be part of the cabinet. NCP State Vice President Suresh Ghule also urged senior party leaders Patel and Sunil Tatkare to appoint her the National President of the party and also propose her name for the deputy chief minister post.

Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, and it is likely that someone from the Pawar family will be fielded when the bye-election for the Baramati Assembly constituency – a seat held by Ajit Pawar since 1991 – is held. There is speculation that one of Ajit Pawar’s sons, Parth Pawar or Jay Pawar, could be fielded.

If Sunetra Pawar has to become deputy chief minister, she will also have to get herself elected either to the legislative assembly or the legislative council. Analysts said Ajit Pawar’s death leaves a huge gap in the NCP. The leader, they said, was groomed by Sharad Pawar and there is no one else who can match his stature and command the same respect. Leaders like Sunil Tatkare and Praful Patel could position themselves as the leader of the NCP, unless there is a reunification with the Sharad Pawar faction of the party, which will completely change the situation.

The NCP, the analysts said, realises that any confusion in its ranks could lead to further loss of ground, especially after the setback in the municipal corporation elections, where it failed to take control of even the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad corporations. This, they pointed out, could be a key reason why the party is in a hurry to find an answer to the leadership question.

NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) Maharashtra President Shashikant Shinde said Ajit Pawar had spoken about taking a decision on the merger of the two NCPs after municipal and local body polls. ”When we had met for an alliance of the two parties for Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad corporation elections, he (Ajit Pawar) had said let’s sit together and discuss (a merger) after Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls (scheduled on February 5).”

“Ajit dada was an emotional man and wanted the two factions to come together and the family to remain united… He had felt enough was enough. If the family and parties want a reconciliation, we have no problem. Now, we have to see if we can fulfil what became his last wish,” he added.

Asked if the NCP (SP) was ready to join the ruling Mahayuti alliance led by the BJP, Shinde said, “Nothing can be said as of now. Let’s see if there is a positive outcome of efforts towards fulfilling Ajit dada’s merger wish. The issue of whether NCP (SP) leaders would like to be in the ruling alliance can be discussed later,” he stated.

Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration Minister Narhari Zirwal said public sentiment was strongly in favour of inducting Sunetra Pawar into the state government. There is a clear demand from the people that Sunetra Pawar, also called “vahini”, meaning “sister-in-law”, should be given responsibility in the ministry, Zirwal said. Some media reports hinted at a proposal to make Sunetra the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, given that Ajit Pawar was a deputy CM in the current Mahayuti government.

They further indicated that the NCP’s proposal would include appointing Sunetra Pawar as deputy chief minister, and that senior party leaders are expected to meet Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis to discuss the proposal and the future roadmap of the Mahayuti government.

According to sources within the party, Praful Patel, the NCP’s working president, is expected to take a leading role in steering the organisation during this transitional phase, the report said. On the question of a possible merger between the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), some said discussions are likely to be deferred for now, though backchannel talks had been ongoing since the municipal corporation elections.