Chandrakant Patil Likely To Be Appointed Pune's Guardian Minister After Ajit Pawar's Death

Maharashtra Minister of Higher and Technical Education Chandrakant Patil, who is currently the Guardian Minister of Sangli district, is likely to be given the additional responsibility of Pune after Ajit Pawar's tragic death in a plane crash on Wednesday.

How did Pune's Guardian Minister post change hands?

Pawar was Pune's longest-serving Guardian Minister. Between 2004 and 2014, he served as the Guardian Minister in the Congress-led Democratic Front government. After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, Girish Bapat held the post until March 2019, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Pune constituency. After that, the BJP appointed Chandrakant Patil to hold the post for a few months until the 2019 Assembly election.

Later, during the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in 2019, Pawar became Pune's Guardian Minister and held the post until the Uddhav Thackeray-led government was in power. After it collapsed, Patil once again became the Guardian Minister of Pune. However, Patil had to reluctantly hand over the responsibility to Pawar after his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) joined the ruling Mahayuti alliance.

The Mahayuti secured a landslide victory in the 2024 polls, and Pawar continued with the charge of Guardian Minister of Pune.

Now, with Pawar's death, Patil, who has held Pune's Guardian Minister post twice in the past, albeit for brief periods, is likely to be given the charge again. However, NCP leaders in the state cabinet are likely to demand that the post be given to someone from their party.

Will Sunetra Pawar be the next DCM?

NCP leaders have suggested that Ajit Pawar's wife, Sunetra Pawar, who is a Rajya Sabha member, should step forward and lead the party.

Senior NCP leader and FDA Minister Narhari Zirwal said it is the people's wish that Sunetra Pawar be inducted into the state ministry.

"We will talk to our leadership about it (inducting Sunetra Pawar in the cabinet) and take a decision," Zirwal, who was a close confidant of Ajit Pawar, said after the late politician's funeral in his hometown Baramati in Pune district.

Will the two NCPs merge?

State NCP (SP) president Shashikant Shinde said Ajit Pawar had himself spoken about sitting together and taking a decision on the unification of the two NCPs after the municipal and local body polls in Maharashtra.

Preliminary talks had already taken place regarding the merger, Shinde stated.

"When we had met for an alliance of the two parties for the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad corporation elections (which took place on January 15), he (Ajit Pawar) had said, 'Let us sit together and discuss the merger after the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls'," he said.

"Ajit Dada was an emotional man and wanted the two factions to come together and the (Pawar) family to remain united. He had felt that enough was enough. If the family and parties want a reconciliation, we have no problem. Now, we have to see if we can fulfil what became his last wish," Shinde said.

(With PTI inputs)