• Source:JND

Sunetra Pawar, wife of the late Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, will take oath as Maharashtra’s first woman Deputy Chief Minister today at 5 pm. She arrived in Mumbai early Saturday morning with her son, Parth, for the swearing-in ceremony.

NCP working president Praful Patel and the party’s state chief Sunil Tatkare on Saturday met Sunetra Pawar at her official residence ahead of the legislature party meeting. The meeting will be held at 2 pm in the Vidhan Bhavan office, where Sunetra Pawar will officially be elected as a leader. The meeting is expected to be attended by forty NCP leaders. 

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The oath-taking ceremony will take place at the Lok Bhavan (Raj Bhavan Complex) in Mumbai. Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the Mahayuti alliance will support Sunetra Pawar’s candidacy for the Deputy Chief Minister post.

“The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will take whatever decision it deems fit for the post of Deputy Chief Minister, and the government and the BJP will support that decision. I can only say that we stand firmly with Ajit Dada’s family and the NCP,” Fadnavis said while speaking to the reporters.

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‘No Idea About Sunetra’s Swearing In’- NCP (SP) Chief Sharad Pawar

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of Sunetra Pawar’s swearing-in ceremony, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday claimed that he had ‘no idea’ about Sunetra’s oath-taking as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. 

"I am not aware of the swearing-in. I didn't even know that it was scheduled for today. There was no discussion with me about the swearing-in. Her party (NCP) may have made the decision. The names of Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare came up, and it is learnt that they took the initiative. They might have taken a decision internally within the party," Sharad Pawar said.

When asked about the decision of the merger, the NCP (SP) chief said that the late Deputy Chief Minister wanted a merger of the two factions, for which he was optimistic. The veteran leader said that both sides were on the same page when it came to the merger, which was supposed to be announced on February 12. However, the talks were derailed due to the untimely demise of Ajit Pawar.  
 
Now, with the swearing-in of Sunetra Pawar, all the talks, speculations and rumours around the merger appear to be stalled perpetually. 

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