Three Portfolios Allocated to Sunetra Pawar

Sunetra Pawar, Rajya Sabha MP of the NCP and wife of the late Ajit Pawar, was sworn in as Maharashtra’s first woman Deputy Chief Minister today (Saturday). Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath. After Ajit Pawar’s death, Sunetra Pawar was unanimously elected as the NCP legislature party leader this morning, and later at 5 pm today, she took charge as Deputy CM at Raj Bhavan.

In the ‘Mahayuti’ government, Sunetra Pawar was given three departments that were earlier handled by Ajit Pawar. The Fadnavis government allotted her the Excise Department, Sports and Youth Welfare, and Minority Development. However, the key Finance Department was not given to her. Considering the state budget session, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis retained the Finance portfolio and will personally present the budget in the Assembly today. After that, the Finance Department may be given to the NCP, or another department may be allotted instead.

Meanwhile, NCP-NP chief Sharad Pawar said he came to know about Sunetra Pawar’s oath as Deputy CM only through media reports today. He also mentioned that Ajit Pawar had wanted a merger of NCP and NCP-SP, but the talks stopped due to the unfortunate plane accident. After these remarks, Ajit Pawar’s son Parth Pawar and NCP(SP) MLA Rohit met Sharad Pawar today and briefed him on the latest developments.