NCP (Sharad Pawar) working president and Baramati MP Supriya Sule on Thursday flagged a potential security threat to party MLA and nephew Rohit Pawar, urging the Maharashtra government to provide him adequate protection.

She said Rohit had been raising “sensitive” questions regarding the plane crash that claimed the life of former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

The demand comes days after Rohit wrote to home minister Amit Shah seeking a "comprehensive, transparent and independent" probe into the January 28 plane crash. After Rohit's letter, newly appointed Maharashtra deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar demanded a CBI investigation into her husband Ajit’s death.

The parallel moves by Rohit and Sunetra, followed by Sule’s intervention, have fuelled speculation of fresh tensions within the extended Pawar family after Ajit's death. Ajit had been attempting to reconcile the rival NCP factions, but his sudden demise is now seen as having cast a cloud on those efforts.

In a detailed post on X, Ajit's cousin Sule said the crash had “sent shockwaves across Maharashtra”, with public grief still raw and social media rife with doubts and suspicions. She noted that Rohit was presenting “well-researched and thoughtful” questions that reflected the public sentiment.

“The people deserve answers. If authorities delay, the unease will only deepen,” she wrote, asserting that questioning the system was a constitutional right. Stressing that Rohit was articulating concerns widely felt by citizens, Sule said the state government must assume full responsibility for his safety.

“In light of all this, it is extremely important that he (Rohit) receives security, and the entire responsibility for his safety must be borne by the state government,” she wrote.

Rohit, a two-term MLA and nephew of Sule and Ajit, has stepped up his campaign over the fatal air crash, holding two media conferences to flag what he described as grounds to suspect sabotage.

Besides writing to Shah, he has demanded that civil aviation minister K. Rammohan Naidu step down until the probe is completed. He also alleged that VSR Aviation, whose Learjet was carrying his uncle when it crashed in Baramati last month, was being shielded.

In Maharashtra’s political circles, Rohit’s aggressive push — becoming the first in the family to demand a detailed probe — is being viewed as an attempt to raise his political profile. Insiders say he is seeking to fill the vacuum left by Ajit’s death.

Ajit, regarded as a grounded mass leader, had long positioned himself as the political heir to his uncle Sharad — a rivalry that lay at the heart of the split in the family-dominated party.

In 2023, Ajit broke away from the NCP founded by Sharad, taking with him a majority of MLAs and the party’s “clock” symbol. He aligned with the BJP and became deputy chief minister in the Mahayuti government, a move widely interpreted as an effort to counter Sharad’s reported plan to hand over the party reins to Sule.

Sources in the Ajit-led NCP said Rohit’s public suggestions of sabotage and his push for a probe had not gone down well with key leaders, including Sunetra, who moved swiftly to step into her late husband’s political role in the government and the party.

“Sunetra Pawar wants to promote her two sons, Parth and Jay, in politics. She understands Rohit’s game plan,” a senior NCP leader said, claiming that unlike her late husband, Sunetra does not share warm ties with Sharad and Sule and is not keen on a reunification of the NCP factions. Sunetra had unsuccessfully contested the Baramati Lok Sabha seat against Sule.

Without directly responding to Rohit’s letter to Shah, Sunetra last Tuesday led an NCP delegation to meet chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, urging him to write to the Centre seeking a CBI probe into the crash. Party leaders said they were confident that the Maharashtra government would soon announce a CBI inquiry.