India, Jan. 31 -- Sunetra Pawar, 62, was elected as the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) legislative party at a party meeting at the Vidhan Bhavan on Saturday, clearing the decks for being sworn in as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister later in the evening.

Sunetra, currently a Rajya Sabha member, succeeds her late husband, Ajit Pawar, who died in a tragic plane crash on January 28 morning.

Sunetra arrived at the Vidhan Bhavan complex with her younger son, Jay Pawar, on Saturday afternoon and paid floral tributes to a portrait of her husband before the legislative party meeting began in the chamber used by Ajit Pawar.

NCP working president Praful Patel and state president Sunil Tatkare were also present at the meeting,...