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Sunetra Pawar unanimously elected as NCP chief
Sunetra Pawar, 62, is the third national president of the party after Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar and the first woman chief of the party.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar was on Thursday elected unanimously as the national president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in place of her husband, late Ajit Pawar, in a meeting of the national executive of the party.
Sunetra Pawar, 62, is the third national president of the party after Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar and first woman chief of the party. She took over the reigns of the party following the death of her husband in a plane crash in Baramati on January 28.
The move assumes significance in the backdrop of the push by Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) for merger of the two factions of the NCP. The party founded by Sharad Pawar was split in June 2023 after Ajit Pawar rebelled with majority of party MLAs and later took it over.
With her elevation, Pawar has completed the process of taking control of the party after becoming chief of NCP legislative unit and subsequently taking oath as deputy chief minister last month.
Her name was proposed by the party's working president Praful Patel at the national executive committee meeting. All the delegates present from across the country extended their support by raising their hands. “I announce Sunetra Ajit Pawar as the new NCP,” Patel declared at NSCI Dome Worli.
He was seconded by Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare. Pawar expressed her gratitude by holding both her hands.
“We have sustained irreparable damage but taking inspiration from Ajit Dada we should march ahead. I am sure we will be able to achieve the same success in the leadership of Sunetra ‘Vahini’ (fondly used for sister in law in Marathi) that we were about to get in the leadership of Ajit Dada (Pawar),” Patel said.
On January 28, NCP president and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash.
To officially nominate her name for the position, the core committee of the party was convened at her official residence ‘Devgiri’ on Wednesday. Working president Praful Patel, state chief Tatkare and Pawar herself were part of the core committee meeting. Later, senior leaders such as Hasan Mushrif, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil and both her sons — Parth and Jay — also attended the meeting, an NCP leader said.
