Ajit Pawar

Ajit Anantrao Pawar (Marathi pronunciation: �d͡ʒit̪ pəʋaːɾ born 22 July 1959) is an Indian politician serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra along with Eknath Shinde under Devendra Fadnavis since 5 December 2024. He is the longest serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra non-consecutively. He has served this position for 6 terms within various governments. He has worked as deputy chief minister within the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.

He served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 2022 to 2023 and represented Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in 1991. He served as deputy chief minister many times.

Early life

Pawar was born in Deolali Pravara, Ahmednagar district. He is son of Ashatai Pawar and Anantrao Pawar, the brother of Sharad Pawar, the president of the Nationalist Congress Party and a four-time former Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He did his schooling Deolali Pravara but dropped out of college to help his family after the death of his father.

Political career

Following the footsteps of his uncle Sharad Pawar in Indian National Congress, Ajit made his first foray into politics in 1982 when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991, he was elected as the chairman of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank and remained in the post for the next 16 years.

He was also elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991 from the Baramati Parliamentary constituency. He later vacated the seat for his uncle, who then became the Defence Minister in Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's government.

Later, he was elected seven times to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Baramati Assembly constituency. He first won in the 1991 by election and retained it for five consecutive terms in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. He served as the Minister of State for Agriculture and Power in CM Sudhakarrao Naik's government from 1991 to 1992.

He became the Minister of State for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning in 1992 when Sharad Pawar became the Chief Minister. In 1999, as part of the INC-NCP coalition government, he became a Cabinet Minister responsible for the Irrigation Department. He was additionally given the Rural Development Department in 2003 as part of Sushilkumar Shinde's cabinet. After the INC-NCP coalition won in the 2004 Assembly elections, he retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh's and later Ashok Chavan's cabinets.

Leader of Nationalist Congress Party

Rebellion against Sharad Pawar

On 23 November 2019, he defected from NCP and joined a government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and became the Deputy Chief Minister. He submitted a paper with the signatures of NCP's MLAs to the Governor to prove the government's majority. However, the government collapsed less than 80 hours later and he resigned along with then-CM Devendra Fadnavis. He subsequently returned to the NCP, and on 1 December 2019, it was announced that he would take over as Deputy CM for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government after the start of the winter session of the state legislature on 16 December.

In 2022, due to a split in the Shiv Sena, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed. After the rebel Shiv Sena faction and BJP formed a government with Eknath Shinde as CM, Pawar became the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Party name and symbol

Having the support of the majority of the erstwhile NCP's MLAs, he also claimed the position of president of the NCP, as well as the party's name and its electoral symbol. On 7 February 2024, The Election Commission Of India (ECI) awarded the party name and symbol to the faction headed by Ajit. The faction led by Sharad Pawar will be henceforth known as Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).

Controversies

There are allegations that, as the minister for water resources, he helped the development of Lavasa, a project touted as a "vision of Sharad Pawar". The ''Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporatio''n (MKVDC) leased to Lavasa in August 2002, which included part of the Warasgaon dam reservoir. The lease between MKVDC and Lavasa was executed at rates far below the market rate.

In September 2012, there were accusations that there had been misappropriation to the tune of Rs. 70,000 crores. These allegations were made by the Maharashtra bureaucrat Vijay Pandhare, and caused the anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania to demand Pawar's resignation as a minister. However, the allegations were not proved, and Ajit was reinstated as the Deputy CM of Maharashtra.

On 7 April 2013, Pawar's statement at a speech in Indapur sparked controversy due to its alleged callousness. In response to a 55-day fast by activists protesting the Maharashtra government's inability to provide water during a drought, he asked whether he should "urinate into he dam to make up for the lack of water in it. After a public outcry against his statement, he publicly apologised, saying that the comment was the "biggest mistake of islife".

Electoral performance

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pawar, Ajit
1959 births
Living people
People from Ahmednagar district
People from Baramati
Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra
Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Maharashtra
Deputy chief ministers of Maharashtra
India MPs 1991–1996
Maharashtra MLAs 1990–1995
Maharashtra MLAs 1999–2004
Maharashtra MLAs 1995–1999
Maharashtra MLAs 2004–2009
Maharashtra MLAs 2009–2014
Maharashtra MLAs 2014–2019
Maharashtra MLAs 2019–2024
Maharashtra MLAs 2024–2029
State cabinet ministers of Maharashtra
Leaders of the opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra
Indian politicians convicted of corruption
Corruption in India
Corruption in Maharashtra