NEW DELHI: Sunetra Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra from the NCP quota on Saturday, days after her husband Ajit Pawar was killed in a plane crash.Sunetra was clad in a white saree as she took the oath to replace her husband amid the chants of “Ajit dada amar rahe.” Maharashtra governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath at his residence in Mumbai.Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde were also present at the oath-taking ceremony.Sunetra will take over all the portfolios that were held by Ajit Pawar, except the finance ministry. This comes hours after Sunetra was unanimously elected leader of the NCP legislative party.On Friday, a high-level NCP delegation met Fadnavis and discussed a whole range of issues, including the appointment of the legislative party leader and deputy chief minister in the wake of the sudden and untimely death of Ajit Pawar. The delegation included party working president Praful Patel, state unit chief Sunil Tatkare, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif, and former minister Dhananjay Munde. The development took place after a significant leadership vacuum emerged within both the NCP and the MahaYuti government.Meanwhile, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar clarified that he was not consulted regarding Sunetra Pawar’s elevation as the Maharashtra deputy chief minister. “I have had no discussion with Sunetra Pawar regarding this. I only learned about the swearing-in ceremony through the media,” he stated at a press conference on Saturday.Ajit Pawar, along with his PSO and three cabin crew members, died in a fatal plane crash while travelling from Mumbai to Baramati on Wednesday. The plane crashed while attempting to land at the Baramati airfield. The crash occurred around 8.48 am, and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau have dispatched probe teams to the site of the mishap to investigate. Ajit Pawar was the longest-serving deputy chief minister of Maharashtra non-consecutively. He served in the position for six terms within various governments. He had worked as deputy chief minister in the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.
