Ajit Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)'s senior leader and nephew of veteran Sharad Pawar, took oath as deputy CM of Maharashtra for the second time as Devendra Fadnavis took charge as the CM on December 5. In the last stint, Pawar shocked everyone on July 2, 2023 when he joined Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra and took oath as the deputy chief minister of the state. In a dramatic turn of events, Ajit, along with nine MLAs, reached Raj Bhawan to meet Governor Ramesh Bais. Ajit Pawar has become the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the fifth time. This is the largest number of times that a politician has been appointed a DCM in the state since the position was created in 1978. This is not the first time Ajit created a political stir in Maharashtra. In November 2019, Ajit Pawar had caused a political crisis in Maharashtra when he defected from the NCP to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He formed a government with the BJP, but the government collapsed within three days. Ajit Pawar returned to the NCP after the crisis. This time, Ajit was said to be disgruntled after he was denied the opportunity to work as state unit chief of the NCP. Earlier this week, the NCP national executive discussed the matter of his resignation and party leaders said the final decision is likely to be taken in two months. Ajit, who most recently served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2021 to 2022, was born in Baramati, Maharashtra, in 1959. He studied at the Deolali Pravara High School and the Pune University. He began his political career in 1982, when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991, he was elected chairman of the Pune District Co-operative Bank (PDC), a position he held for 16 years. Ajit also got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 from Baramati constituency but vacated the seat for his uncle Sharad Pawar who was then the Defence Minister of India in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government. He got elected to the Maharashtra Assembly the same year and was the Minister of State for Agriculture and Power from November 1992 to February 1993. He got re-elected from the same constituency in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Some of the important positions he has held till now include Minister of State for Agriculture, Horticulture and Power, Minister of Water Resources (Krishna Valley and Kokan Irrigation, three times) and Deputy Chief Minister (September 29, 2012-25 September 2014).