Mumbai, April 2 (IANS) A month after Sunetra Pawar took over as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) national president following the death of her husband and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, her younger son Jay Pawar has now officially entered active politics.
Jay Pawar has been appointed to the NCP’s apex committee, though he is yet to be assigned responsibility within the party organisation.
Incidentally, Jay’s brother, Parth Pawar, has been elected to the Rajya Sabha and will take the oath after April 6.
Jay Pawar was named as an apex-level committee member of the party in a letter sent by Sunetra Pawar to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 10.
Jay Pawar’s name was included in the apex committee in a national convention of the NCP held on February 26.
Sunetra Pawar was selected as the party’s national president in that convention, which was held after the death of NCP chief, Maharashtra deputy chief minister, and Sunetra Pawar’s husband, Ajit Pawar, in an aircraft crash.
The apex-level committee is also considered the highest decision-making body in the party, which is authorised to take various organisational and political decisions.
After the family patriarch and veteran leader, Sharad Pawar, his nephew, Ajit Pawar, entered politics in the late 1980s. After Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, entered politics after becoming a Rajya Sabha MP in 2006.
Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Rohit Pawar entered politics by contesting the Zilla Parishad elections in 2017 and later won the 2019 and 2024 assembly polls.
Sunetra Pawar became a Rajya Sabha MP in June 2024, though she lost to Supriya Sule from the Baramati parliamentary seat in the general elections earlier.
Parth Pawar entered politics in 2019, when he unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from the Maval constituency as a candidate of the undivided NCP.
He was then defeated by the undivided Shiv Sena’s Shrirang Barne. Since then, Parth has been active in both political and social life. However, he was never given an official position in the NCP.
Sharad Pawar’s another grandnephew, Yugendra Pawar, had contested against his uncle and former NCP chief Ajit Pawar in the 2024 assembly elections but lost.
Till now, Jay had kept his distance from politics and was never seen as active in the political arena.
Jay had participated in his mother, Sunetra Pawar’s, campaign during the Lok Sabha elections. Since Ajit Pawar’s death, he has been seen constantly accompanying his mother, Sunetra Pawar, to various places.
The letter sent by Sunetra Pawar to the ECI detailed organisational elections and the names of office bearers elected.
The list includes names, which are Sunetra Pawar, Praful Patel (national working president), Sunil Tatkare (NCP state president), Chhagan Bhujbal (Maharashtra minister and MLA), Dilip Walse-Patil (MLA), Manikarao Kokate (MLA), Chetan Tupe (MLA), Shekhar Nikam (MLA), Subodh Mohite (former MP), Saroj Ahire (MLA), Sana Malik (MLA), Jay Pawar and Dhiraj Sharma (national youth chief).
“Jay Pawar is a young leader of the party, and he has a huge legacy attached to him. He will soon be given an important responsibility in the party as he is now part of the apex committee,” said Anand Paranjape, chief spokesperson of the NCP.
As per the party structure, all sitting MPs, MLAs, former MPs, and MLAs automatically become part of the invitees in the national convention when organised.
Meanwhile, Parth Pawar, in his post on X, denied media reports regarding the removal of Praful Patel from the post of party national working president and Sunil Tatkare as the Maharashtra unit chief.
Parth Pawar said, “Baseless reports and speculative narratives targeting Praful Patel ji and Sunil Tatkare ji are nothing but fiction. Their decades of unwavering commitment and leadership continue to guide us all. Dragging such senior leaders into manufactured controversies is deeply unfortunate and must be called out.”
–IANS
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