India, Feb. 2 -- In politics, grief is not just personal loss. It is also a vacuum, and vacuums invite movement.

Ajit Pawar's sudden death has left Maharashtra politics unsettled in ways that go beyond emotion or sympathy. He was not merely a deputy chief minister or a party leader. He was a fulcrum around which alliances, negotiations and internal balances turned. When such a figure disappears overnight, politics does not stop to mourn but looks for anchors.

That search began almost immediately. Within days of the crash, Sunetra Pawar was sworn in as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister. The speed of the transition has drawn criticism, largely centred on timing and propriety. Yet the haste is revealing, not because it is unprecedented, ...