Sunetra Pawar was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Saturday. The ceremony, held at Lok Bhavan in Mumbai, marked her as the first woman to hold the position in the state. This significant appointment follows the recent death of her husband, Ajit Pawar, in a plane crash near Baramati.

Sunetra Pawar is a Rajya Sabha MP. To continue as Deputy Chief Minister, she will need to be elected to either the state's Assembly or Legislative Council within six months.

Earlier on Saturday, Sunetra Pawar was elected as the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislative party, a faction previously led by her late husband. Her name was proposed by senior leader Dilip Walse Patil and seconded by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal. The election took place during a meeting of the party's legislative wing at the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Mumbai.

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and other leaders from the Mahayuti alliance, which includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, and the NCP.

Ajit Pawar's death occurred when a small aircraft crashed near an airstrip in Baramati during its second attempt to land. The crash also killed two pilots, a flight attendant, and Ajit Pawar's security officer. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is investigating the cause of the crash.

In 2023, Ajit Pawar and several other MLAs joined Maharashtra's Mahayuti coalition government, leading to a split within the NCP. One faction supported Ajit Pawar, while the other backed his uncle, Sharad Pawar. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Sunetra Pawar contested from Baramati as the Ajit Pawar-led NCP candidate but was defeated by her sister-in-law, Supriya Sule, from the rival faction. She was later elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2024.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that the ruling alliance would support the NCP's decision regarding the Deputy Chief Minister's post and affirmed the BJP's support for the Pawar family during this transition.