‘Confident she will fulfil the vision of the late Ajitdada Pawar’: PM Modi extends wishes to Sunetra Pawar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday extended best wishes to Sunetra Pawar, who took oath as the first woman deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, replacing her deceased husband, Ajit Pawar. In a social media post on X, Modi said that he is confident that Sunetra will fulfil the vision of late Ajitdada Pawar.

“Best wishes to Sunetra Pawar Ji as she begins her tenure as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the first woman to hold this responsibility. I am confident she will work tirelessly for the welfare of the people of the state and fulfil the vision of the late Ajitdada Pawar,” he said.

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Sunetra Pawar was sworn in as the new deputy CM of Maharashtra at a low-key ceremony held at Lok Bhavan. Maharashtra Governor Acharya Devvrat administered oath of office and secrecy.

The ceremony was attended by Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, deputy CM Eknath Shinde and other leaders of the NDA.

Sunetra was elected the leader of NCP legislative party following the legislative party meeting at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai earlier today. The meeting was attended by all the NCP MLAs and MLCs.

Following her election, she resigned as the Rajya Sabha MP and the post is widely expected to go to one of her sons Parth and Jay Pawar.

Ajit Pawar had held four portfolios- Finance and Planning, State Excise, Sports and Minority Affairs. However, Sunetra will only get three of them as Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to keep Finance and Planning, the reports said. Fadnavis is also expected to present the state budget in the Assembly next month.

Five people, including Ajit Pawar, were killed after the charter plane carrying them crash landed near the runway threshold at the Baramati airport on Wednesday.