NCP minister calls for Sunetra Pawar to join Maha govt

Mumbai: Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Food and Drugs Administration minister Narhari Zirwal on Thursday said that the public wants late Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife, Sunetra Pawar, to be brought into the state ministry.

NCP leader Narhari Zirwal says the public wants Sunetra Pawar to be included in the Maharashtra state ministry. Sunetra Pawar is currently a Rajya Sabha member.

Zirwal stated that the NCP leadership will discuss the possibility of including Sunetra Pawar in the ministry.

Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state along with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Asked about the NCP's future after Ajit Pawar's death, Zirwal said that people want 'vahini' (sister-in-law, referring to Sunetra Pawar) to be included in the ministry.

"We will talk to the leadership about it and take a decision," Zirwal, who was a close confidant of Ajit Pawar, told a news channel after the leader's funeral in Baramati.

To a question on the merger of the two NCP groups, Zirwal said, "The two factions are already together. Everyone has realised that there is no point in remaining scattered and have to be together."

Ajit Pawar and four others were killed when the chartered plane carrying them crashed at Baramati in Pune district on Wednesday.

In July 2023, Ajit Pawar had joined the then Eknath Shinde-led state government, triggering a split in the NCP founded by his uncle Sharad Pawar.

                                        'Without Dada, We Are Nobody'

'Because of him, we learned how to work for people, how to take responsibility, and how to stand by our decisions.'

'The speed with which he achieved Maharashtra's development was much faster than the speed of a plane.'

'We have lost the man who pushed us every single day to deliver.'

'If you were ready to work, he gave you a chance.'
 
When Anil Bhaidas Patil speaks about Ajit Pawar, he does so slowly, often stopping mid-sentence as if searching for the right words. The Nationalist Congress Party MLA from Amalner -- the only NCP legislator from Jalgaon district -- is clearly affected by the loss, even as he tries to stay composed.

There is grief in his voice as he speaks less about himself and more about the work Ajit Pawar did and the way he led.

A loss that feels unreal across Maharashtra : "There's nobody in Maharashtra who wouldn't know the personality that was Ajit Dada," Patil says. "And today, nobody is able to accept that he is no longer with us."

Ajit Pawar's death in a plane crash in Maharashtra on January 28, 2026, has left a deep political and emotional vacuum, he feels not just among NCP workers but across the state. For leaders across party lines, the shock is still settling in.

For Patil, the loss is deeply personal. "The speed with which he achieved Maharashtra's development was much faster than the speed of a plane," he says. "It is our misfortune that the plane in which he was travelling did not like Ajit Dada's development speed. Not just the Nationalist Congress Party, but the entire Maharashtra today has to face the brunt of Ajit Dada leaving us so early."

He insists this grief is not his alone. "This is how everybody in the NCP feels today," Patil says. "We have lost the man who pushed us every single day to deliver."

Patil was among the first eight MLAs who stood beside Ajit Pawar when he broke ranks with his uncle and NCP founder Sharad Pawar and took oath as deputy chief minister in July 2023, in a move that reshaped Maharashtra's political landscape. It was a moment of uncertainty and risk, but Patil says Ajit Pawar never hesitated.

A leader who created space for ordinary people : Coming from an ordinary family, Patil says he never imagined that he would one day sit in Mantralaya and take decisions affecting thousands of lives. "Ajit Dada changed that," he says. "He gave strength, confidence and courage to people like me from simple backgrounds and brought us to the forefront of Maharashtra's politics."

Ajit Pawar's leadership, Patil believes, was about creating opportunities for those who rarely got them. "He didn't care where you came from," Patil adds. "If you were ready to work, he gave you a chance. He gave us opportunities to become part of the ministry and to work directly for the people of Maharashtra."

Through his vision and bold leadership, Patil says, Pawar ensured development reached even the smallest villages. "He helped uplift poor people and made sure the fruits of development did not remain limited to cities."

"I have seen roads, irrigation projects and basic facilities reach places that had been waiting for years because of Ajit Dada's vision."

For farmers in particular, Ajit Pawar's impact was lasting. "He understood that without water, nothing else mattered," Patil says. "That is why he pushed irrigation projects even when they were difficult and unpopular."

A legacy written in work, not words : Patil says Ajit Pawar never worked for applause. "He worked for results." "If work was done, that was enough for him."

That approach, he believes, is what made Pawar different from most leaders of his time. "He taught us that power has meaning only when it reaches people," Patil says. "That lesson will stay with us forever."

Patil speaks not just of loss, but of responsibility. "Our identity is nothing without Ajit Dada," he says quietly. "I am nobody without Ajit Dada. We are nobody without Ajit Dada. But because of him, we learned how to work for people, how to take responsibility, and how to stand by our decisions."

"He made us believe we belonged there."

Ajit Pawar may no longer be physically present, Patil says, but his legacy is visible everywhere. "His work is written across Maharashtra -- in its fields, its villages, its canals and its roads," he says. "That is how he should be remembered."