Mumbai: Sunetra Pawar, widow of late Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Ajit Pawar, is set to take charge as deputy chief minister on Tuesday. She will also attend the state cabinet meeting scheduled to take place that afternoon.
Following Ajit Pawar’s death in a plane crash on January 28, Sunetra Pawar was sworn in as the new deputy chief minister on January 31. She was allocated all the departments that her husband was in charge of and was also allotted Pawar’s favourite ‘Devgiri’ bungalow as her official residence at Malabar Hill.
Before taking up her new role early on Tuesday morning, Sunetra Pawar will visit the Siddhivinayak temple and pay her homage to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar by visiting Chaityabhoomi, Dadar where the architect of the Indian Constitution was cremated. She will be accompanied by NCP’s national working president Praful Patel and state president Sunil Tatkare and a number of senior leaders. “After this, she will take charge as the new deputy chief minister,” confirmed a senior NCP office-bearer. “She will also attend her first cabinet meeting as deputy CM,” he added.
To campaign for the Zilla Parishad elections, Ajit Pawar had been travelling from Mumbai to Baramati on January 28 when his aircraft failed to land at the Baramati airport in its first attempt. During the second attempt, the plane flipped in the air and crashed in an open field area near the airstrip. All those on board were killed in the deadly accident including Pawar, his personal security officer Vidip Jadhav, pilot-in-command captain Sumit Kapur, first officer captain Shambhavi Pathak and flight attendant Pinky Mali.
As per NCP leaders, Sunetra Pawar may also soon replace her deceased husband as the new NCP president.