Ajit Pawar

Ajit Pawar
8th Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 July 2023 Serving with Devendra Fadnavis
Governor	Ramesh Bais
Chief Minister	Eknath Shinde
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning
In office 30 December 2019 – 29 June 2022
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Chief Minister	Uddhav Thackeray
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning State Excise Additional charge
Preceded by	Himself
Succeeded by	Devendra Fadnavis
In office 23 November 2019 – 26 November 2019
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Chief Minister	Devendra Fadnavis
Ministry and Departments	Minister without Portfolio
Preceded by	President's rule
Succeeded by	Himself
In office 25 October 2012 – 26 September 2014
Governor	C. Vidyasagar Rao
Chief Minister	Prithviraj Chavan
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning Energy
Preceded by	Himself
Succeeded by	President's rule
In office 10 November 2010 – 25 September 2012
Governor	K. Sankaranarayanan
Chief Minister	Prithviraj Chavan
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning Energy
Preceded by	Chhagan Bhujbal
Succeeded by	Himself
29th Leader of the Opposition Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
In office 04 July 2022 – 02 July 2023
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ramesh Bais
Deputy	Balasaheb Thorat
Chief Minister	Eknath Shinde
Speaker of the House	Zirwal Narhari Sitaram (Acting) Rahul Narwekar
Preceded by	Devendra Fadnavis
Succeeded by	Jitendra Awhad (Acting)
Leader of the House of the Maharashtra Legislative Council
In office 24 February 2020 – 29 June 2022
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Chairman	Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar
Deputy Leader	Subhash Desai
Preceded by	Chandrakant Patil Subhash Desai Acting
Succeeded by	Devendra Fadnavis
In office 11 November 2010 – 25 September 2012
Governor	K. Sankaranarayanan
Chairman	Shivajirao Deshmukh
Preceded by	Chhagan Bhujbal
Succeeded by	R. R. Patil
Deputy Leader of the House Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
In office 30 December 2019 – 29 June 2022
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Speaker of the House	Nana Patole Zirwal Narhari Sitaram (Acting)
Leader of the House	Uddhav Thackeray
Preceded by	Girish Mahajan
Succeeded by	Devendra Fadnavis
Cabinet Minister Government of Maharashtra
In office 7 November 2009 – 10 November 2010
Governor	S. C. Jamir K. Sankaranarayanan
Ministry and Departments	Water Resources Krishna Valley Irrigation Corporation Energy
Chief Minister	Ashok Chavan
Preceded by	Sunil Tatkare Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar
Succeeded by	Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar Sunil Tatkare
In office 08 December 2008 – 06 November 2009
Governor	S. C. Jamir
Ministry and Departments	Water Resources Water Supply Sanitation Command Area Development
Chief Minister	Ashok Chavan
In office 09 November 2004 – 01 December 2008
Governor	Mohammed Fazal S. M. Krishna S. C. Jamir
Ministry and Departments	Water Resources Excluding Krishna Valley Corporation
Chief Minister	Vilasrao Deshmukh
Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 1991
Preceded by	Sharad Pawar
Constituency	Baramati
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 03 May 1991 – 20 June 1991
Preceded by	Shankarrao Bajirao Patil
Succeeded by	Sharad Pawar
Constituency	Baramati
Personal details
Born	(1959-07-22) 22 July 1959 Deolali Pravara, Bombay State (now in Maharashtra), India
Political party	Nationalist Congress Party
Spouse(s)	Sunetra Pawar
Children	2
Residence	Sahyog, Maharashtra, India
Website	www.ajitpawar.org
Nickname(s)	Ajit Dada

Ajit Anantrao Pawar (Marathi pronunciation: [əd͡ʒit̪ pəʋaːɾ]; born 22 July 1959) is an Indian politician from Nationalist Congress Party who is serving jointly as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra with Devendra Fadnavis to the incumbent CM Eknath Shinde since 2 July 2023. He served as the leader of opposition in Maharashtra legislative Assembly from 2022 to 2023 and served for a term as Lok Sabha MP from Baramati constituency.

He is a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly representing Baramati constituency since 1991. He is a nephew of Sharad Pawar, president of the Nationalist Congress Party. He has been deputy chief minister of the state most number of times, currently he is serving 5th time.

In 2019, he took oath at dawn as Deputy Chief minister with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fandnavis, claimed he have majority NCP MLA's support, in 3 days both resigned. In 2023 he deserted his uncle Sharad Pawar and took oath as Deputy Chief minister in CM Eknath Shinde's cabinet, this caused unprecedented split in NCP. Ajit Pawar also claimed right on the position of NCP president, expressed desire to keep party name and its election symbol, indicated to complete overtake NCP from present chief Sharad Pawar.

Early life

Pawar was born on 22 July 1959 at his grandfather's place in Deolali Pravara, Ahmednagar district. He completed his schooling in Deolali Pravara. He hails from the village of Katevadi in Baramati taluka, Pune district. He is nephew of the Nationalist Congress Party President, Sharad Pawar. Pawar is son of Sharad Pawar's elder brother, Anantrao Pawar. Anantrao had initially worked for renowned film maker V.Shantaram's Rajkamal Studios in Mumbai. Pawar's grandfather, Govindrao Pawar, was employed with Baramati Co-operative trading and his grandmother looked after the family farm.

Pawar was pursuing a college degree; however, due to the death of his father, he dropped out to help take care of his family. He is educated up to Secondary school level and holds the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) from the Maharashtra State Board.

Political career

While Pawar was pursuing his primary education at Deolali Pravara, his uncle, Sharad Pawar was a rising political figure in the ruling Congress party. Pawar moved to then Bombay for more extensive education. Pawar made his foray into politics in 1982, when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. He was elected as a chairman of the Pune District Co-operative Bank (PDC) in 1991 and remained in post for 16 years. During this period he was also elected as Member of parliament, Lok Sabha from the Baramati Parliamentary Constituency. He later vacated his Lok Sabha seat in favour of his uncle, Sharad Pawar, who had then become the defence minister in PV Narasimha Rao's government. Later, he was elected as a Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Baramati Assembly Constituency. Pawar was re-elected from the same constituency in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. He went on to become the Minister of State for Agriculture and Power (June 1991 - November 1992) in Sudhakarrao Naik's government.

He became the Minister of State for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning (November 1992 - February 1993) when Sharad Pawar returned to the state as the Chief Minister. When the Indian National Congress-NCP coalition came into power in 1999, Pawar was promoted to cabinet minister in the Irrigation Department (October 1999 - December 2003) in Vilasrao Deshmukh's government. He was given additional charge of the Rural Development Department (December 2003 - October 2004) in Sushilkumar Shinde's government. When Congress-NCP combination returned to power in 2004, he retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh's government and later in Ashok Chavan's government.

On 23 November 2019, Pawar was sworn as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra State with BJP without his party's consent. He submitted paper with signatures of NCP MLAs to Governor of State. He was on the post for less than 80 hours, becoming Deputy CM with the shortest tenure in Devendra Fadnavis led government. On 1 December 2019, it was announced that Pawar would take over as Deputy Chief Minister for the Maha Vikas Aghadi administration after the commencement of the winter session of the state legislature on 16 December.

In 2022, due to the Shiv sena got divided, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed due to internal revolt in Shiv Sena. After the rebel Shiv Sena group and BJP formed the government with Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister, Pawar became the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

Rebellion against Sharad Pawar

Main article: 2023 Maharashtra political crisis

On 2 July 2023, Ajit Pawar again sworn in as Deputy CM in the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Pawar's action is believed to have been caused due to his displeasure with not getting a post in party, unlike Supriya Sule. He said he have support of many MLA of NCP, due to it NCP got divided in two factions between loyalist of his uncle-NCP president Sharad Pawar and his (Ajit Pawar) supporters. Later Ajit Pawar claimed himself as the president of NCP, indicated to takeover entire party from his uncle Sharad Pawar. He also claimed on party name, symbol and said his faction is real NCP. Most of the powerful NCP politicians such as Chhagan Bhujbal, Sunil Tatkare have joined his faction thus creating politicall rebellion similar to 2022 crisis, when Eknath Shinde who is now incumbent Chief minister of Maharashtra successfully overtook nearly entire Shiv sena party from its founder's son- president Uddhav Thackeray.

In his faction's first assembly, Ajit Pawar alleged his uncle Sharad Pawar for his biased behaviour towards his daughter Supriya Sule, double standards, insulting him, hypocrisy and urged him to retire from politics.

Controversies

Template:Controversy section There are allegations that, as the minister for water resources, he spared no efforts to help in the development of Lavasa, a project touted as a "vision of Sharad Pawar". The Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) leased 141.15 ha (348.8 acres) 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.

He told the Indian Election Commission in 2004 that he had financial assets of more than 3 crore Rupees at that time.

In September 2012, there were accusations that there had been misappropriation of funds amounting to ₹ 70,000 Crores. These allegations were made by the Maharashtra bureaucrat, Vijay Pandhare, and caused Anjali Damania to request Pawar's resignation as a minister. However, the allegations were not proven, and he was successfully reinstated as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

On 7 April 2013, Pawar in an attempt at being comical about his inability to bring waters to the dams, made a controversial statement in a speech at Indapur. Activists were fasting for 55 days in Maharashtra, against the Maharashtra government and their incompetence of not providing relief in the form of water to citizens suffering from the drought. In response to this, in a speech at large crowd gathering, Pawar stated: "If there is no water in the dam ... Should I urinate into it?". Due to the political and media pressure, he publicly apologized for the statement, admitting that the comment was the biggest mistake of his life.

External links

• www.ajitpawar.org