Maharashtra | Why Sunetra Pawar has inherited Pawar crisis

A by poll win in Baramati, emphatic as it was, did not quite reveal that the real battles for Sunetra Pawar lay ahead—and within her party. In January, days after her husband Ajit Pawar’s death in an air crash, Sunetra was sworn in as deputy chief minister and took over this half of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). But Ajit proves a hard act to follow as party boss. His tight, no-nonsense wielding of reins kept multiple satrapic ambitions in check; his absence loosens those restraints. Sunetra faces a lower threshold of deference from the old guard, especially on family. Her reliance on elder son Parth, now a Rajya Sabha MP, has made of him a rising power centre—a fact resented by the veterans. Younger son Jay, too, is testing the waters in Baramati and is tipped to be its assembly candidate in 2029.