Behind Ajit Pawar’s insistence for Pune guardian post, NCP-BJP struggle for supremacy, his desire to strengthen home turf

Pawar, who has held the post thrice since 2004, has been trying to regain control of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) which it lost to the BJP in 2017. The post will also strengthen his hand in the faction fight that he might face in his home district against his uncle Sharad Pawar.

After the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party joined the Sena-BJP alliance, the three parties had been in a tussle over sharing portfolios but it was resolved. However, the issue of the reshuffling of district guardian ministers was pending.

Among them, the position of Pune district’s guardian minister is crucial for both Bharatiya Janata Party and NCP as it is the home district of Ajit Pawar where the BJP has been working hard to establish its supremacy.

Ajit Pawar, the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar who represents the Baramati Assembly segment, was Pune’s guardian minister from 2004 to 2014. Thus, the NCP was able to expand its base in the district and managed to get power in the PMC by keeping Congress away.

When the BJP-led alliance came to power in 2014, Girish Bapat was made the Pune guardian minister. However, Bapat was elected from the Pune Lok Sabha seat and the BJP appointed Chandrakant Patil, who hails from Kolhapur, in his place.

In 2019, Patil was elected from the Kothrud Assembly constituency but the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress came to power under Uddhav Thackeray. Thus, Ajit Pawar managed to become the Pune guardian minister again that year.

Last year, when the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance under Shinde came to power in the state by pulling down the MVA government, Patil again became the Pune guardian minister.

The NCP-led by Ajit Pawar had staked claim over the post of Pune guardian minister after getting in power.

“It has been proved in the past that the development of the district has been fast whenever Pawar was its guardian minister. He managed to get in a lot of funds for development work of the district and gave a push to mega infrastructure projects,” Pradeep Deshmukh, working president of city NCP led by Ajit Pawar, had said.

On his part, city BJP leader Sandeep Khardekar had said the development works in the district gained pace during the tenure of Patil.

However, cadres of both parties are worried as the BJP and NCP have been engaged in a direct tussle to establish their supremacy in the district.

In the 2017 civic polls, the BJP had managed to snatch power from the NCP in the PMC and PCMC, as well as other civic bodies, when it was in power at both the Centre and Maharashtra.

Recently, Ajit Pawar had held a meeting with authorities on various issues facing the district in Patil’s absence leading to speculation that the NCP leader was trying to convey he holds sway over the Pune district. Later, he clarified that he met the officials as the state’s deputy chief minister in order to give a push to projects in the district.