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Sharad Pawar visits Sunetra's residence; holds meetings with her sons, Parth and Jay in Baramati
Sharad Pawar visited Sunetra’s residence in Sahyog Society to offer condolences following Ajit Pawar’s death.
PUNE: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar met deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar and also held a closed-door meeting with her sons, Parth and Jay, in Baramati on Wednesday. The interaction between members of the late Ajit Pawar’s family is being seen as an attempt to ease tensions within the larger Pawar family following Sunetra’s swearing-in last week.
The meetings with Parth and Jay, held in the morning at Vidya Pratishthan, an educational institution, lasted for around one-and-a-half hours. Later in the day, along with his wife Pratibha, Pawar visited Sunetra’s residence in Sahyog Society to offer condolences following Ajit Pawar’s death.
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While there was no official word on the agenda of the meetings, people in the know within NCP (SP) said the discussions included constructing a memorial of Ajit Pawar in Vidya Pratisthan, and the possible induction of Parth and Jay into the governing body of the institute where Ajit Pawar was a board member.
Pawar met the brothers separately after discussing issues about the institute with trustees, fuelling speculation that politics may have been on the table alongside talks on their organisational responsibilities.
The meeting is significant in the backdrop of Pawar’s remarks last week when he stated that he was unaware of Sunetra’s swearing-in as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra – the comment projected a rift between two sides of the Pawar family.
On Wednesday morning, Pawar publicly wished Sunetra luck, signalling a possible thaw.
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Coming together
Soon after Ajit Pawar’s death in the air crash on January 28, his close aide Kiran Gujar had claimed that he had wished for a merger between the two NCP factions, a task which would now be carried forward by Parth. “With Parth Pawar meeting Sharad Pawar (at his residence following Ajit’s death), misunderstandings that arose after the swearing-in have been cleared. The Pawar family has decided to come together politically and fulfil Ajit Pawar’s wish of uniting the two NCP factions,” Gujar had said earlier.
Following his death, several influential positions in institutes and industries held by Ajit, will now be reassigned within the family. These include positions such as chairman of the Malegaon Sugar Factory, chief trustee of Vidya Pratishthan, president of the Maharashtra Olympic Association, and roles in the Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Rayat Shikshan Sanstha and the Pune District Education Board.
