PUNE: Deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar was never the loudest presence in the Pawars’ world. If her late husband and NCP chief Ajit Pawar was known for his mercurial politics and terse one-liners, and his cousin Supriya Sule for her spunkiness and energy, Sunetra was reserved, composed, and measured.Always appearing in a well-draped saree, Sunetra is Baramati’s vahini (sister-in-law), a position she owned with grace. She was deeply involved in social and ecological issues and cultural festivals.
Sunetra comes from a political family from Dharashiv, but she was never active in politics, even after she married Ajit Pawar and came to Baramati. Her sons’ education kept her away in Mumbai for years and when they went off to college, she began her work in Baramati.“Her work started in 2004 with Nirmal Gram Yojana, a central govt scheme for sanitation. Ajitdada wanted to first make Katewadi an open defecation-free village, and vahini took up the responsibility. When Dada got the textile park started in Baramati, she became the chairman, and now over 15,000 women work there. So, she is no stranger to working for the people,” Sheetal Kale, from the NCP unit in Katewadi, said. Katewadi, is Ajit Pawar’s ancestral village some 10km from Baramati town.A person who worked closely with her during her 2024 Lok Sabha campaign said vahini listened calmly even when the other person was angry. “When upset, she did not erupt. She either made a passive-aggressive comment or used slight sarcasm, leaving the person who slipped up with a quiet, sinking certainty: they were wrong, and she was hurt,” he said, adding, “But, she remembers.”So, when Supriya Sule in Feb 2024 made a veiled attack on Sunetra’s possible candidature from the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, asking, “Do you want such a person as a candidate who sits quietly while her husband speaks, or someone who will speak for you in Parliament and solve the problems?”, it was a deeply personal provocation. But, Sunetra, even after her candidature was announced, remained silent about Sule and the Pawar family.In her campaign pitches, Sunetra never tried to hide her inexperience in politics. Instead, she chose to seek votes in the name of her husband and his work. It is telling that after his wife’s defeat, Ajit Pawar admitted regret in fielding her against his cousin and said that politics must be kept away from family. It was almost like a confession, as if he knew he had made her walk through a fire she had never started.In a way, she may have known she would not win. But her decision was simple: Dada decided to field her and she would contest.So, when the flames of politics licked at her doorstep in 2024, her inexperience with the grind of politics was glaring during the campaign. She was unlike the career politicians, working the crowd, especially in the days before the election. Sunetra, though born in and married to political families, was not trained for that drama.Despite all the campaign management, her lack of grasp and knowledge of grassroots politics showed when she was handed notes listing names of people she must mention at all the sabhas, delivered almost the same speeches everywhere, took constant breaks to beat the heat and dust of a dry summer in rural Maharashtra and was incapable of charming the crowd.By evening, she was visibly tired, the fatigue compounded by knee-related health issues. In contrast, Sule was a seasoned politician and did not miss a single opportunity to canvass for votes. She won by 1.55 lakh votes.Sunetra was at ease in smaller gatherings, especially with women, because these were spaces that felt like an extension of her earlier social work. In those rooms, she did not have to perform politics, only speak the language she already knew. She spoke about education, jobs and SHG loans. Her reluctance at the mic remains, as even in Rajya Sabha, where she became a member in June 2024, her attendance and the debates she participated in are much below the national average.Her temperament was built less for rallies, where oratorical skills matter. Rajendra Dhawan, former vice chairman of Malegaon Sugar Factory, said, “Whenever Dada was not in Baramati, was busy with his duties as deputy chief minister or as the head of NCP, it is vahini that everyone met. She would listen to the problems, consult with her PA, either find a solution or take the problems to her husband. Don’t underestimate her.“When her attendance at a Kangana Ranaut-hosted RSS event drew flak, she did not counter-attack, but insisted that she believes in the Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar ideology, indicating that stepping into a new political alignment did not mean abandoning old social loyalties.But with Ajit Pawar’s death, her image is changing to a symbol of endurance: A woman pushed from the sidelines into the centre.The question now hangs heavier than the election itself: Will Sunetra Pawar, who entered politics late and reluctantly, grow into a seasoned politician, or will she remain a softer face in the BJP-NCP arrangement?Baramati, which knows her as ‘vahini’ before it knew her as a candidate, is watching not just her next move, but whether she will ever truly choose politics instead of being chosen by it, and, most importantly, whether she will be able to fill the large void that Ajit Pawar has left.“When Indira Gandhi entered politics, she was called goongi gudia. She became one of the most powerful Prime Ministers. People who don’t know vahini think she shies away from politics,” Vishal Jadhav, NCP’s former city unit president in Baramati, said. “But she has seen it all, and as a wife, she too must have been hurt when, despite an NCP majority and Dada’s contributions to the party, he was denied the position of chief minister multiple times. For someone who kept away from politics, she has created political history in the state today,” he added.Rohit Taware, who has been with dada since he was an 18-year-old in 1997, said till 2023, Dada was not known to mince words when angry. “He changed after 2023 when he took over the party. Responsibility forced him to become calmer and more accepting. There is a narrative spread that vahini is inexperienced, she may turn into a pawn, etc. But her father is Bajirao Patil, she is Padamsinh Patil’s sister and the wife of Ajit Pawar, which means she has never stayed away from politics for a single day in her life. Just because she doesn’t raise her voice doesn’t mean she is naïve. Filling Dada’s shoes is tough, but she deserves a chance,” he added.In her first media post as the deputy chief minister, Sunetra acknowledged the enormity of the responsibility and said that she will continue Dada’s work by being ‘loyal to the thoughts of Shiv-Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar to build a just, equal and developed Maharashtra’. It is a subtle message that even in a coalition with right-wing parties, NCP, under Sunetra, will maintain its individuality, even without Dada.
