Sunetra Pawar, wife of late NCP president Ajit Pawar, was sworn in on Saturday as the first woman Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
The 62-year-old leader resigned from her post as a Rajya Sabha MP before taking oath. Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath of office and secrecy at a brief ceremony held at Lok Bhavan.
Earlier in the day, Sunetra Pawar was elected as the leader of the NCP legislature party in the state.
Ajit Pawar, who served as Deputy Chief Minister and also held the finance portfolio in the BJP–Shiv Sena–NCP Mahayuti government, died in an air crash in Baramati on January 28. As Sunetra Pawar stepped forward to take the oath, slogans of “Ajit dada Amar Rahe” (Ajit dada is immortal) were raised.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and senior NCP leaders including Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare , and Chhagan Bhujbal attended the ceremony.
Sunetra Pawar’s younger son Jay Pawar and his wife were also present.
She is currently not a member of either house of the Maharashtra legislature. She is expected to contest the upcoming by-election to the Baramati assembly seat, which was represented by her late husband.
From a prominent political family, Sunetra Pawar has largely remained low-profile. She made her electoral debut in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Baramati, where she contested against her sister-in-law and sitting NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule.
After losing the Lok Sabha election, she was elected to the Rajya Sabha.
She now faces the challenge of keeping the NCP united and managing coalition politics with the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Her immediate task will be to decide on the proposed merger of the two NCP factions.
