India, Feb. 1 -- With Sunetra Pawar taking over as deputy chief minister in the Mahayuti government following the death of her husband in a plane crash, the second part of the power tussle between the two NCPs has begun in earnest. The haste with which she took oath has put a question mark over the process of reconciliation that the uncle and the nephew were reportedly working on. While Sharad Pawar himself had said that the merger of the two factions was on the cards, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP leaders denied that the nephew had promised any such thing.

According to NCP insiders, the scramble for control of the party began on Thursday itself, barely hours after Ajit's cremation. Senior party leaders who were his close aides-the party's work...