NEW DELHI: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday that it is up to the NCP to choose its next leader following the untimely demise of party chief and Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar.The BJP leader added that both his party and the state government would support whatever decision the NCP makes.“The decision will be taken by the NCP. We will stand by whatever decision the NCP takes…We are standing by the family of Ajit Pawar and the NCP,” he told reporters in Mumbai.Fadnavis added that he would also review the procedures required to finalize the state budget, which Pawar—who also held the crucial portfolio—was due to present next month.“He had already done significant work on the state budget. Starting tomorrow, I will personally oversee the remaining processes, and we will decide on the next steps,” the chief minister stated.His remarks came amid reports that the NCP would hold a legislative party meeting on Saturday to elect Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar, Ajit Pawar’s wife, to succeed the Maratha heavyweight as both the legislative party leader and as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and, later, possibly as NCP president.However, Fadnavis declined to comment on Sunetra Pawar being sworn in as the deputy CM.She made her electoral debut in last year’s Lok Sabha election, where she was defeated by her sister-in-law and Ajit Pawar’s cousin, Supriya Sule, in the family’s Baramati stronghold.Ajit Pawar, 66, who broke away from his uncle, veteran politician Sharad Pawar, in 2023 to join the BJP and Shiv Sena-led Mahayuti alliance, was the state’s longest-serving deputy chief minister, having held the post for six terms. He died on Wednesday morning when the private aircraft he was traveling in from Mumbai crashed during an emergency landing in Baramati, where he was scheduled to address a rally. All five people on board, including Pawar’s personal security officer, both pilots, and a flight attendant, were killed.
