Opinion Girish Kuber writes: Ajit Pawar was a man in a hurry, even when the destination was not in sight
He had a great capacity for hard work and excellent administrative skills. His undoing was his lack of patience, a quality he never imbibed from his uncle and mentor, Sharad Pawar
“One day, I wish to become the Maharashtra chief minister,” Ajit Pawar would often say, ruefully. He had every quality that was needed — excellent administrative skills, a great capacity for hard work, a grasp of a variety of topics, social connect and the ability to find a way out of any situation. (Express Photo) Ajit Anantrao Pawar, known as Ajit dada, was an angry young man of Maharashtra politics. A member of the Pawar family, he was served with power and position on a platter. Ajit was much pampered, especially after his father’s sudden passing. Sons in Indian families are often born with privileges, and Ajit, always on the verge of losing his cool, was no exception. As the darling of his uncle Sharad, an old-school, strict disciplinarian father to Supriya Sule, Ajit became known as a spoiled brat. It must have been near impossible for young Ajit not to imitate his more illustrious uncle, and he inherited many of Pawar Senior’s characteristics — except one: Patience.
Ajit dropped out of college and started taking an interest in politics at an early age. When he was barely in his 20s, he was elected to the board of the local sugar mill and in less than 10 years, in the 1991 elections, he became a Member of Parliament from the Pawar borough of Baramati. In the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Sharad Pawar lost the leadership battle to P V Narasimha Rao, who offered him a place in the Union cabinet. Ajit soon vacated his Lok Sabha seat for Sharad Pawar, who was not a member of either House. It was a blessing in disguise for Ajit, who was always more interested in Maharashtra politics. He became a member of the state assembly, and in his first term, in 1991, graduated to a ministerial position in Sudhakarrao Naik’s cabinet. This was when the suffix “dada” was added to his name. Following the communal riots and bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993, a canny Rao dispatched Sharad Pawar to Maharashtra to replace Naik. The change of guard didn’t change Ajit dada’s ministerial status. From then on till his death, Ajit dada was synonymous with power.
He was catapulted to a larger role after 1999, when Sharad Pawar broke away from Congress to set up the Nationalist Congress Party. Even though Pawar Senior had walked out, the 1999 Maharashtra Assembly elections compelled Congress to join hands with him. Here, again, Ajit dada found a place in Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s ministry. Following elections in 2004, the Congress-NCP combine defeated the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, the NCP winning 71 seats, compared to Congress’s 68. This was the moment Ajit dada had been waiting for. His dream of leading the state seemed within reach, as the NCP staked its claim to the chief ministership. It was, however, not to be, as, in an inexplicable turn of events, Sharad Pawar ceded the Chief Minister’s chair to the Congress for a few more portfolios for his men. Ajit dada’s dream of becoming the CM of Maharashtra was shattered, never to be fulfilled. If Pawar Senior saw Ajit dada as being too temperamental for the post, Ajit too couldn’t hide his sense of betrayal.
This is the crucial quality that sets Ajit apart from his uncle. Pawar Senior would bide his time, never letting on what he was up to, while Ajit dada would vent his feelings in public. Once, when a delegation from a drought-hit region called on him to complain about dried-up dams, and refused to buy the government’s clarifications, he lost his cool and shot back: “Do you want me to p** and fill up your dam?” The resulting furore caused irreparable damage to his reputation. “He will have to live with this (ill-tempered behaviour),” said Sharad Pawar later.
Power was something he couldn’t live without, preferring to go with the establishment of the day to living in oblivion. Merely looking at the list of chief ministers he served as deputy explains how strong his survival instincts were. He served as deputy CM to his bête noir, Congress’s Prithviraj Chavan, who ordered investigations into what came to be known as “cooperative bank scam”, with Ajit’s involvement hinted at. Ajit dada could never forgive Chavan for this and relations between the two were far from cordial. Besides Chavan, he was deputy to Uddhav Thackeray (undivided Shiv Sena), Eknath Shinde (post-split Shiv Sena) and Devendra Fadnavis (BJP).
Ajit dada’s craving for power also resulted in the infamous, ill-timed escapade at Raj Bhavan when he was sworn in as deputy CM, with Fadnavis as chief minister, in a hush-hush early morning ceremony in 2019. Ajit dada was hoping for a split in the party. But his uncle Sharad outsmarted him, eventually forcing him into a hasty retreat. He soon got the opportunity to settle scores. Blessed by the BJP government at the Centre and a judiciary that looked the other way, Ajit dada not only divided the party, he also walked away with the party symbol. In doing so, he nearly succeeded in stealing Sharad Pawar’s legacy, becoming the new boss of the NCP.
“One day, I wish to become the Maharashtra chief minister,” he would often say, ruefully. He had every quality that was needed — excellent administrative skills, a great capacity for hard work, a grasp of a variety of topics, social connect and the ability to find a way out of any situation. Like his uncle, he was genuinely secular and never played the Hindu-Muslim card to win elections. Unfortunately, Ajit dada will go down in history as the able chief minister Maharashtra never had. He was always in a hurry, even when unsure of the destination.
The writer is editor, Loksatta
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