Mumbai, 30 Jan

Sunetra Pawar, Rajya Sabha MP and the wife of deceased NCP chief Ajit Pawar, is likely to be sworn in as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday, party sources said.

She would be the first woman to hold the post in the State.

Following the death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in an air crash in Baramati on Wednesday, a section of Nationalist Congress Party leaders had demanded that she should get the post.

“Tomorrow, a parliamentary board meeting of the party will take place in Mumbai, where Sunetra Pawar will be elected as the leader of the legislature party,” said a source.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said the BJP would support any decision taken by the family and party of late Ajit Pawar.

“I can only tell you that we are standing behind the family of Ajit Dada and NCP,” he added.

Until the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Sunetra Pawar had kept a low profile. In the general elections that year, she stood from Baramati as the candidate of her husband’s party, but was defeated by her sister-in-law and incumbent NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule in the prestige battle.

Sunetra was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Fadnavis had conveyed that he had no issue if her swearing-in ceremony as Deputy CM took place on Saturday itself, provided a decision to that effect was taken by the party, said NCP Chhagan Bhujbal.

Sunetra Pawar is currently not a member of either House of the Maharashtra legislature. However, the Baramati assembly seat in Pune district has fallen vacant after Ajit Pawar’s death.

NCP’s tally in the 288-member state assembly came down to 40 with Ajit Pawar’s death.