Mumbai : NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that he was not aware if his nephew’s wife, Sunetra Pawar, would be sworn in as Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday. “I have no information about it. Her party must have decided…What I saw in the newspaper today: some names like Praful Patel and Sunil Tatakare who have taken the initiative to make some decisions. Pawar also clarified that nobody from his family would be attending the oath taking ceremony.
The leadership of the NCP (SP) and Sharad Pawar’s family were not aware of Sunetra Pawar’s decision to join the BJP-led government. Talks of a merger between the two NCP factions had been going on for the past four months, led by Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil. Now we feel his wish should be fulfilled. Ajit Pawar, Shashikant Shinde and Jayant Patil had initiated the talks about the merger of the two factions. Even the merger date had been fixed – it was scheduled on the 12th (February). Unfortunately, Ajit left us before that, he said.
The NCP split in July 2023, when Ajit Pawar took more than 40 of the party’s 54 MLAs to join the BJP-led Mahayuti government. Following the split, Sharad Pawar named his faction the Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar. The decision will be taken by the NCP. We will support whatever decision they take. We are standing by the family of Ajit Pawar and the NCP,” Fadnavis told reporters.
Four others on board, including his personal security officer Vidhit Jadhav, pilot Sumit Kapur, first officer Shambhavi Pathak, and cabin crew member Pinky Mali, also died. Sunetra Pawar, who is not a member of either house of the Maharashtra legislature, is set to be elected as the leader of the legislature wing of the NCP at a meeting in Mumbai on Saturday. She is likely to take oath as Deputy Chief Minister after that.
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