Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday visited the Baramati residence of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar, who died in a plane crash last week.
NCP-SCP chief Sharad Pawar during the tribute ceremony of late Deputy CM Ajit Pawar at Sunetra Pawar’s residence in Baramati (ANI)Big Pawar paid floral tributes to Ajit Pawar in the presence of several Pawar family members.
The visit to Sunetra’s residence comes amid speculation about an NCP reunion, which has been under discussion for months.
Sharad Pawar reached Baramati late on Tuesday night and visited the city’s allied societies, where a condolence meeting was scheduled following his sudden death. Ajit PawarNews agency PTI reported.
However, there was no word on whether Sharad Pawar had a meeting with Sunetra, who took over as deputy CM after her husband’s death.
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Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s sons Parth and Jai paid floral tributes to his late nephew in the presence of other family members including MLA Rohit Pawar.
The visit comes days after Sunetra was sworn in as Maharashtra’s first woman deputy chief minister on Saturday. After taking oath, Sharad Pawar expressed his happiness at being given the top post.
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Earlier in the day, a closed-door meeting was held between the 85-year-old leader, Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar’s son Partha and Joy on the premises of Vidya Pratishthan, an educational institution in Baramati. The meeting reportedly lasted for an hour and a half, and there was no official word on the details of the meeting.
The talks are likely to focus on the merger of the two NCP factions and the possibility of the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections, sources said.
On 28 January, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash at Baramati in Pune district. A few days later, his wife Sunetra Pawar was sworn in as Deputy CM.
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After Ajit Pawar’s death, Sharad Pawar and his party leaders claimed that merger talks between the two parties were at an advanced stage and the late deputy CM had finalized February 12 as the date to announce the reunification of the NCP parties.
Earlier today, while talking to reporters, Sharad Pawar said that NCP leader Jayant Patil and NCP chief Ajit led the merger talks.
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Meanwhile, another demand emerged from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who claimed that if the merger talks had indeed progressed, Ajit Pawar would have shared the details with him.
(with inputs from PTI)
