Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar has been unanimously elected National President of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP here on Thursday while her elder son Parth Pawar may soon be named the party’s national general secretary, sources said.
The official announcement came at the Ajit Pawar-le NCP’s national convention 2026 organised in Worli here on Thursday. All the important and senior leaders of the party as well as other leaders and office bearers of the party were present at the convention.
A proposal was made to elect Sunetra Pawar as the national president after which all party leaders unanimously agreed. It was Praful Patel who proposed the name of Sunetra Pawar for the post.
The party’s new executive president is Praful Patel while its Maharashtra state president is NCP MP Sunil Tatkare.
Sources also said that the late Ajit Pawar’s son Parth Pawar, who is tipped to be the party’s candidate to the Rajya Sabha, is likely to be elected as the national general secretary of the party. An official announcement about Parth’s appointment as national general secretary will be made shortly, sources said.
The appointments of Sunetra Pawar and her son, Parth Pawar, have been designed to ensure that no merger of the two NCPs will ever be possible, sources said.
It is also learnt that the ruling BJP is eyeing at least 17 to 19 MLAs out of a total of 41 MLAs of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP to join the BJP, sources said.
The Sources also said that some senior leaders of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, current ministers, and leaders aspiring ministerial berths are likely to prefer a merger of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP with the BJP.
As things stand, merely 19 MLAs is an insufficient number to bypass the rules of the Anti-Defection Act, but if the Supreme Court decides against giving the undivided NCP election symbol of a clock to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, then the pro-merger MLAs could claim that they have no option but to merge with the BJP, sources said.
They said the same dynamics would apply to the Deputy CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena as well, if the Supreme Court gives the undivided Shiv Sena’s ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena or decides to freeze that election symbol.