‘Mi, Sunetra Ajit Pawar, pratigya karte ki … ‘: ‘Clock’ ticks on in a changed NCP

With Sunetra Pawar, Ajit Pawar’s wife and a Rajya Sabha member, sworn in as deputy CM on Saturday, stepping into the role held by her husband, the state has formally entered a new and uncertain phase, shaped by the vacuum left by Dada’s death. Sunetra Pawar’s elevation may have filled the immediate constitutional vacuum, but it has also foregrounded larger, unresolved questions about the NCP’s future, the ruling Mahayuti alliance’s stability, and the direction the state’s politics will take in the absence of one of its most influential power brokers.