Mumbai: Three days after Sunetra Pawar took oath as Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, replacing her husband, the Maharashtra government has appointed her as the Guardian Minister for Pune and Beed.
Ajit Pawar was the guardian minister for those two districts before his sudden death last week, when his plane crash-landed Wednesday in Baramati.
Today, on 3 February, the Maharashtra government issued a government resolution on appointing Sunetra Pawar as the Guardian Minister for the two districts.
On the other hand, Praful Patel, the national working president of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has laid to rest murmurs about him coveting the party’s national president post after Ajit Pawar’s death.
“When did I say I was in this competition? Did I say anything? Has anyone in the NCP said anything? I am not in the competition,” Patel told reporters Tuesday in Mumbai.
“After Ajit dada’s death, it is my responsibility, as national working president, to ensure all these processes are completed smoothly. And, in Maharashtra, it is with Sunil Tatkare…We decided, to the best of our abilities, about Sunetra ji Pawar. We will take the remaining decisions similarly. And this decision will be taken, without me. I will not be the national president; that much is clear,” he said.
Last week, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, in an interview with PTI, commented that Praful Patel had been named the national president of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
Patel’s strong rebuttal followed, after which BJP’s Goyal withdrew his statement, saying he had been briefed incorrectly.
Decision on guardian ministers
In the first Mahayuti government led by Eknath Shinde—after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had formed the Mahayuti—Beed’s guardian ministership was with Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Dhananjay Munde.
Under the second Mahayuti government led by CM Devendra Fadnavis, Beed went to Ajit Pawar, as Munde’s right-hand man battled allegations of extortion and the murder of a sarpanch. Walmik Karad, Munde’s aide, was eventually arrested, after which Munde had to step down as cabinet minister.
While the Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has now allocated Ajit Pawar’s guardian ministerships to Maharashtra’s first woman Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar, it is yet to decide on all his portfolios. Ajit Pawar held the key finance, planning, and excise portfolios, among others.
With Ajit Pawar no longer here, CM Devendra Fadnavis is likely to present the state budget in the legislative session next month, according to government sources.
Only last week, Fadnavis, while speaking to reporters, said that Ajit Pawar had already done considerable work on the budget and that he would personally oversee the rest of the preparation to “ensure his vision is fulfilled”.
For now, the Fadnavis government has kept the question marks hanging over the guardian ministerships of Nashik and Raigad.
The government had initially named Aditi Tatkare from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP as the guardian minister of Raigad, and the BJP’s Girish Mahajan of Nashik.
However, CM Fadnavis later stayed the decisions after stringent opposition from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which wanted the two districts for its minister Bharat Gogawale from coastal Raigad and Dada Bhuse from Nashik.
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NCP’s priority: ‘Get house in order’
Post Ajit Pawar’s death, there has been a strong push for the unification of the two NCPs from the party’s Sharad Pawar-led faction.
Several leaders, including Jayant Patil, Shashikant Shinde, and Anil Deshmukh, have repeatedly said Ajit Pawar had held talks with them and almost finalised the reunion.
NCP founder Sharad Pawar has also confirmed the talks, adding that any such talks would likely be discontinued.
Everyone from Ajit Pawar’s faction, however, has maintained a cautious stance.
On Tuesday, Patel said, it isn’t possible that Ajit Pawar would have held talks with senior leaders from the Sharad Pawar faction and not with his own party leaders.
“When local body polls started, all parties took different stands. In some places, such as Ahilyanagar, we were with the BJP; in Nashik, we were with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. Ajit dada had said that all of us were contesting the local polls independently. [He had said] If our (NCP’s) votes were divided, it would impact us, so we should discuss with NCP (Sharad Pawar) and have some coordination. That was the only discussion,” Patel has said.
In his interviews, Patel has further revealed that Ajit Pawar maintained that the tie-up would be just for the local elections, with no decisions made beyond the polls.
With that said, Patel has added, “Let us first get our house in order.”
On Sunday, to assert the BJP’s influence within the Mahayuti, Fadnavis told reporters that he had no idea of such merger talks and that if Ajit Pawar indeed had such a plan, he would have informed the BJP, since his party was a part of the Mahayuti.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)