Ajit Pawar’s political career unfolded in the towering presence of his uncle, Sharad Pawar, but was driven by a constant desire to establish his own identity. The son of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder’s elder brother Anantrao, the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, who died in an air crash in his home turf of Baramati, rose through the cooperative sector and entered public life under his uncle’s mentorship.
Ajit’s political tutelage, having been born in 1959, began quite early. He once spoke of how, when he was in high school, he would often walk around the house serving tea to people arriving to meet his uncle, who was already an established politician by then. On another occasion, Ajit recalled how he and his friends went all out to campaign for Sharad Pawar in Baramati. “We took the job so seriously that my uncle actually won with a much higher margin than earlier,” he said.
Another facet of this early political training under the watchful eyes of his uncle was his penchant for hard work, with his days beginning as early as 6 am as he reviewed project reports and files before heading out on visits. For many in Pune and Baramati, this became a familiar sight over the years.
“I start my day at 6 am with field visits to review government projects. This not only helps me review properly but also ensures that citizens are not affected due to VIP movement,” the NCP leader once said.
Sharad Pawar’s close aide
After cutting his teeth in the cooperative sector, Ajit’s sharp political acumen helped him establish himself as one of his uncle’s trusted political aides. His first political breakthrough came in 1991, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Baramati. Months later, he vacated the seat to make way for his uncle, who had been inducted into the P V Narasimha Rao-led Union Cabinet.
While there were many similarities between the nephew and the uncle — for one, both were known for their strategising — Ajit stood out for his plain-speaking and his refusal to mince words, whether at rallies or in conversations with bureaucrats. This persona, combined with his wit, endeared him to people beyond Baramati and helped establish him as the most important leader in the party after Sharad Pawar.
It also helped him cultivate a loyal group of leaders within the NCP whose allegiance lay firmly with him — something that would prove crucial decades later when he struck out on his own, free of his uncle’s influence.
Ajit Pawar’s long run in Assembly elections began when he swapped the Lok Sabha seat for the Baramati Assembly constituency that Sharad Pawar had represented for decades. He did not lose the seat for the next three decades, emerging as one of the most powerful leaders in western Maharashtra.
After Sharad Pawar broke away from the Congress to form the NCP in 1999, Ajit was elevated to the Maharashtra Cabinet after serving as a junior minister for more than nine years. He held heavyweight portfolios, including Irrigation, Rural Development, Water Resources and Finance, using them to build a strong organisational network across the state, particularly in western Maharashtra. He also developed a following among bureaucrats, many of whom liked him for valuing their opinion. His reliance on bureaucrats was such that supporters often joked that Ajit dada was the real “Chief Secretary”.
Breaking ranks
Ajit Pawar first broke ranks with the NCP leadership publicly in 2004, when the party conceded the Chief Minister’s post to the Congress despite being the single-largest party. Along with his rise came greater ambition, and Ajit increasingly saw himself as his uncle’s political successor. However, the decision of his cousin and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, to enter electoral politics in 2009 created tensions within the party and the family that were never fully resolved.
Alongside his rising political prominence came allegations of corruption, which continued to shadow him till the end. Apart from the Rs 1,300-crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank case — in which loans given to sugar factories by cooperative banks came under scrutiny — Ajit also faced questions over the alleged irrigation scam. In 2012, he resigned as Deputy CM over the allegations of irregularities that had threatened the stability of the Congress-NCP government.
In November 2019, Ajit Pawar staged his most dramatic political move. As the NCP negotiated a coalition with the Congress and Shiv Sena after the Assembly elections, he broke away and formed a government with Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP. In a surprise early-morning ceremony, Fadnavis was sworn in as CM and Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM. The experiment collapsed within 80 hours after it became clear that Ajit lacked the support of the NCP Legislature Party. He returned to the party and reconciled with his uncle, and soon after became Deputy CM again in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
For the next three years, he remained a central figure in the MVA government, though tensions within the NCP persisted and his dissatisfaction with his political future grew.
The 2023 split
In July 2023, Ajit Pawar split the NCP and joined the BJP-led Mahayuti government with the backing of a large group of MLAs, marking a massive realignment in Maharashtra politics following the split in the Shiv Sena the previous year. He was sworn in as Deputy CM alongside Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis. The move formally divided the NCP into two factions and ended decades of political unity within the Pawar family. The Election Commission later recognised the Ajit Pawar faction as the official NCP and granted it the party name and symbol, while Sharad Pawar’s group came to be known as NCP (SP).
Ajit Pawar continued as a key partner in the Mahayuti government after the last Assembly elections, though tensions with the BJP surfaced over political positioning and electoral strategy. Setbacks in civic polls revived speculation of a possible rapprochement between the two NCP factions.