Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 31: The veteran leader and the founder of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar has expressed his disappointment over the great haste in which his party’s breakaway group led by his deceased nephew Ajit Pawar decided on his succession programme anointing his widow Sunetra Pawar overnight to occupy all the posts her husband held in the party and the government before he was killed in the plane crash on Wednesday.
Ms Pawar was appointed the president of the NCP, was elected the leader of the NCP legislature party in a hurriedly convened meeting and within hours in a brief ceremony at the Lok Bhavan was sworn-in as the deputy chief minister becoming the first woman to occupy the high office in Maharashtra, all in a day’s development on Saturday. She is also likely to retain all the portfolios her husband held in the incumbent Devendra Fadnavis cabinet except perhaps finance which the chief minister may retain, and in lieu give her some other important portfolio.
All the decisions were taken by a handful of leaders of the NCP with Ms Sunetra Pawar herself in the loop while keeping the family patriarch and her uncle-in-law Sharad Pawar and other Pawar family members in the dark. When Sharad Pawar, who was in Baramati where Ajit Pawar died in the plane crash, on Saturday, was asked if he was sidelined from the process of deciding Ajit Pawar’s successor, the veteran leader in a resentful tone merely quipped, “I don’t know.”
Senior Pawar’s remarks clearly indicate a demarcation between politics and family. In July 2023, the NCP split into two factions after Ajit Pawar walked out of his party, breaking from his uncle’s side to carve his own path in the political history of the state. Sharad Pawar has distanced himself from the development and claimed to have learned about the oath ceremony planned for Saturday evening through the media.
“We don’t know about the swearing-in. We got to know about it through the news. I have no idea about the swearing-in,” he said, addressing a press conference in Baramati, when asked if anyone from the Pawar family would be attending the ceremony.
Amidst such a profound tragedy for the Pawar family, the haste in deciding Ajit Pawar’s political successor has surprised many. The primary reason behind this move is believed to be the impending decision to merge Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Ajit Pawar’s party, a plan that was soon to be implemented. Heavyweights in Ajit Pawar’s camp feared that if the merger took place, Sharad Pawar’s faction would dominate the unified party, thereby diminishing their own influence.
The political upheavals began in Maharashtra soon after the plane crash. Senior leaders of Ajit Pawar’s NCP, including Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, and Sunil Tatkare, met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to inform him of their decision to appoint Sunetra Pawar as Deputy Chief Minister. Later that evening, a meeting of senior leaders was held, which Sunetra Pawar joined online. It was decided that she would be entrusted with all three responsibilities previously held by her husband: the post of Deputy Chief Minister, the post of NCP President and the leader of the NCP Legislative Party.
Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal told reporters that it was the unanimous wish of the party that Sunetra Pawar take over these responsibilities, which is why her name was proposed. When asked about the reunion of the two NCP factions, Senior Pawar said Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil were present during the discussions held on January 17 and Patil will take a call now.
The exclusion of Sharad Pawar from the entire process of NCP political succession under Sunetra Pawar has raised questions about the intentions of the NCP leaders. It is believed that the catalyst was the merger agreement reached between Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar on January 17, which was scheduled to be announced on February 12. Veteran leaders fear that if the party reunites, the leaders who remained loyal to Sharad Pawar after the July 2023 rebellion will hold sway, reducing the importance of those who defected with Ajit Pawar.
There is another reason why leaders of Ajit Pawar’s NCP are wary of reunification. Sharad Pawar recently stated that he would not align with the BJP under any circumstances. This sparked fears that a unified NCP might exit the NDA at the Centre and the Mahayuti alliance in the State, resulting in a loss of power for these leaders.
Notably, before joining the Mahayuti, many of these leaders were embroiled in criminal cases being investigated by agencies like the CBI, ED, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Joining the alliance brought them not only power but also relief from these legal proceedings. These leaders now fear that if a unified NCP exits the Mahayuti, their legal troubles could resurface.
On the other hand, Sunetra Pawar is a political novice. Her entry into politics occurred only in 2024 when she unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Baramati against her sister-in-law, Supriya Sule. Consequently, these leaders believe that with Sunetra at the helm, it will be easier to influence party decisions and maintain their own dominance.
However, there is also chatter in Maharashtra’s political circles that appointing Sunetra Pawar as Deputy Chief Minister and Party President is merely a temporary arrangement. A merger of the two NCP factions is considered inevitable sooner or later, after which Sunetra Pawar’s role may undergo a significant change.
A video claimed to be of a “final meeting” between the uncle-nephew and other top leaders added to the suspense and claims. The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar and some other Congress leaders three decades ago, was split in 2023 when Ajit took away most of the MLA, the name and symbol, to join the BJP-led Mahayuti government. Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule’s faction is called the NCP(SP).
But it’s not just a transition within the government at stake. There’s also the future of the NCP. Sharad Pawar has said secret negotiations for a merger between the two factions were underway for four months. According to the former Union minister, Ajit Pawar had initiated the talks alongside leaders like Jayant Patil and Shashikant Shinde.
“Ajit Pawar believed the merger should take place on February 12,” Sharad Pawar told reporters, adding that Ajit had expressed a desire to “move forward decisively” by reuniting the party. Senior NCP(SP) leader Jayant Patil corroborated this noting that Ajit had visited his home multiple times for meals and discussions to strengthen the NCP under the patriarch Sharad’s leadership. Some leaders claimed Ajit even wanted to announce the reunion as a “gift” for Sharad Pawar’s birthday on December 12, though that plan was delayed.
Adding weight to these claims, a purported video surfaced on social media on Saturday showing Sharad and Ajit Pawar engaged in deep discussion on January 17. NCP (SP) sources described this as the “final” meeting regarding the merger before Ajit’s ill-fated flight on January 28.
Despite these signs of a thaw, the two camps remain publicly distanced.
Sharad Pawar claimed he was not aware of the plan to appoint Sunetra Pawar as deputy CM and learned of it only through media reports. “It was their responsibility; we are different,” he remarked, distancing his faction from the Mahayuti government’s decisions.
Meanwhile, Sunil Tatkare, state president of the Ajit’s NCP, initially refuted merger talk. He later acknowledged that discussions had occurred but only regarding contesting local elections together. The two factions contested the recent urban civic body elections together in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, where they were ultimately crushed by a BJP landslide in the January 16 results.
This failure is believed to have hastened the reunion talks that Ajit Pawar was reportedly spearheading before the Learjet 45 plane crash claimed his life. The tragedy has forced a realignment within the Pawar dynasty. With Ajit gone, analysts are watching the roles of the next generation.
On Saturday, Ajit’s son Parth Pawar spent 90 minutes at Sharad Pawar’s residence in Baramati, sparking further speculation about the family’s political future. While Parth and his brother Jay are being positioned to stabilise their father’s legacy in Baramati, Rohit Pawar, a grandnephew who remained loyal to Sharad Pawar during the 2023 split, continues to rise as a key figure. Supriya, already an MP, was seen carrying out family duties at Ajit’s funeral.
Sharad Pawar, who is 85 and had hinted at retiring by late 2026, may now delay his exit to mentor the family through this vacuum, reports say. When Supriya and Ajit campaigned together under the Ajit-held ‘clock’ symbol, there was straightforward analysis that ultimately they could work in the “original” party with Ajit as the chief. There was, thus, also talk of getting Supriya a berth in the central BJP-led government of PM Narendra Modi.
None of that was yet concretised or public. Ajit and Supriya did address joint press conferences, with both camps acknowledging that their grassroots workers wanted a formal reunion.
Ajit expressly hinted at permanent reconciliation, saying in an interview that he believed in the “politics of addition, not subtraction.” He claimed, with evidence of the Pune poll tie-up, that bitterness between the groups, if any, was all but gone.
On Sunetra succeeding Ajit as deputy CM, the state’s main opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) has reacted with a mix of sympathy and scepticism. Sanjay Raut also flagged the haste in the process alleging that the “BJP does politics over dead bodies.”