Opinion Can Sunetra Pawar hold a patriarchal party together while negotiating with a voracious BJP?
What deserves closer attention is not whether a woman took charge too quickly, but what the men around her will do next, inside the party, within the alliance and to the people of Maharashtra
Pawar’s death also exposed the delicate fault lines within the Pawar family. (ANI Video Grab) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s sudden demise in an aircraft accident recently sent shockwaves across the state and country. While people mourned the loss of a prolific political leader, questions were immediately raised about what his demise would mean for Maharashtra’s politics, which has already seen a lot of churn over the last few years.
Within days, Sunetra Pawar was sworn in as Deputy CM, becoming the first woman to hold the post in Maharashtra. The alacrity of her elevation is only part of the story. It must also be viewed through the lens of Maratha patriarchy. The NCP has long been shaped by a dominant Maratha male leadership, grounded in rural patronage networks, cooperative institutions, and elite political bargaining. Sunetra Pawar’s ascent disrupts this order. Before she gets time to mourn, pick up the pieces and begin to make sense of what happened, her political acumen and leadership are already under immense scrutiny.
A step forward for BJP’s ‘Opposition-mukt Bharat’?
Ajit Pawar’s absence is likely to weaken the NCP’s bargaining power within the BJP-led Mahayuti. His greatest strength lay in his ability to negotiate by leveraging commanding legislative numbers, controlling key portfolios like Finance and Planning and bringing with him a deep understanding of rural Maharashtra and Maratha politics. Without him, the NCP risks being greatly reduced as a major partner in the alliance. For the BJP, which has steadily worked to shrink and fragment opposition parties, this offers an opportunity not only to control the NCP but also to hollow out the Pawar brand — much as it has attempted to do with the Thackerays. Whether Sunetra Pawar can prevent the party from slipping fully into the BJP’s shadow will depend on how much political space she is able to claim within the family and the NCP.
Fissures within the NCP and the Pawars
Ajit Pawar was also the critical balancing force between the two NCP factions. Even after he engineered a split in the party and joined hands with the BJP, blood ties allowed him to negotiate with Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule. Fissures were obvious not just within the two NCPs but also in the party leadership that Ajit Pawar took with him. Leaders like Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, and Chhagan Bhujbal, with their unending ambition and dependence on the BJP to get access to power, were becoming liabilities for the NCP brand. This may well be the reason for the whispers that the Pawars had planned a merger of the NCP to consolidate their control over the party after the upcoming Zilla Parishad polls. Ajit’s sudden death, however, removes the emotional and political glue of the party. What now comes to the fore are naked ambitions and unresolved rivalries — Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule on one side; leaders such as Patel and Tatkare on the other. The merger will now go beyond family and ideological considerations, and the BJP is likely to see what works better strategically for it: Sharad Pawar with Sunetra Pawar as a symbolic bridge, or Sunetra Pawar backed by other leaders as a rubber-stamp.
Pawar’s death also exposed the delicate fault lines within the Pawar family. Sharad Pawar’s visible shock suggests unease. Supriya Sule’s long-standing ambitions add another layer of complexity. Sunetra has to now negotiate family hierarchy, generational aspirations and party leadership, all while operating within a coalition that benefits from internal NCP instability.
Defining moment for Maharashtra politics
Ajit Pawar was not merely a power broker. He was a serious politician who understood the state’s political economy, agrarian distress and caste dynamics. For a state with nearly 55 per cent agrarian population, this is a major loss.
The popular narrative post Ajit Pawar’s death revolves around shaming Sunetra rather than interrogating the structural forces at play. What deserves closer attention is not whether a woman took charge too quickly but what the men around her will do next, inside the party, within the alliance and to the people of Maharashtra. As power realigns, the equations and forces at play will shape governance, the opposition space and democratic accountability in the state.
The writer is a Mumbai-based researcher who works on Maharashtra politics and urban informality
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