Four months ago, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar found himself staring at the nadir of his political career. The year before, he had split from his uncle and party founder Sharad Pawar and became the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister in alliance with the BJP and the Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde. But the gamble appeared to have failed as the NCP was allotted only five seats in the Lok Sabha polls and managed to win only one, finishing last among the six major political parties in the state. Amid clouds of political uncertainty and the possibility of again getting bulldozed by his allies in seat-sharing negotiations for the Assembly polls, Ajit faced an uphill battle as he faced perhaps the most consequential election of his career that would decide who led the real NCP, him or his uncle. Not only did the NCP outdo almost everyone’s expectations — winning 41 of the 59 seats it contested — on Thursday, he will be sworn in as Maharashtra's Deputy CM for a record sixth time. Ajit Pawar is also likely to keep his favourite Finance and Planning Department for the next five years. But most importantly, the NCP chief has settled the “who is the real NCP” debate once and for all, managing to emerge out of Pawar’s shadow. Highly ambitious politically, Ajit dada, as he is popularly known, struggled under the long shadow that his uncle cast and his vaulting political ambitions saw him break with Pawar once after the 2019 Assembly elections. But the rebellion back then had been shortlived. The son of Sharad Pawar’s elder brother Anantrao, Ajit first rose in politics like the rest of the family through the cooperative sector. In 1991, he set off on his journey in electoral politics by winning the family seat of Baramati. But having not liked his stint in Delhi, he moved back to the Maharashtra Assembly and in the then Congress government he was made MoS Agriculture and Power and was later given the Water Supply and Planning portfolios. After four years in the Opposition — the first BJP-Sena government was in power — Ajit played a key role as Pawar broke away from the Congress and floated the NCP. In Maharashtra, it was Ajit who did his uncle’s bidding as he stitched up alliances and convinced leaders from across the state to switch sides. In the 1999 Assembly elections, the Congress-NCP government came to power and Ajit was given the all-important Irrigation ministry in a state where farmers play a dominant role and agrarian distress is acute. Over the next 15 years, he established himself as one of Maharashtra’s most powerful politicians, handling key departments such as Rural Development, Water Resources, Power, and Finance. One of the first instances of Ajit Pawar publicly differing with his uncle came in 2004 when he disagreed with the party leadership’s decision to concede chief ministership to the Congress despite emerging as the single-largest party. In 2010, he was appointed the Deputy CM for the first time, serving under Prithviraj Chavan. Since then, he has always had the post whenever his side has been in power. Highly regarded as an administrator, Ajit Pawar is popular among bureaucrats for his attentive and brusque attitude even though he is often criticised for allegedly depending excessively on bureaucratic inputs rather than political considerations. Some of his detractors have also criticised his inability to detach himself from the comparatively local-level developmental issues. Another criticism that Ajit Pawar has faced is his proclivity for impulsive decision-making. In the wake of the Irrigation scam allegations in 2011, he resigned as Deputy CM without consulting Pawar. In 2019, when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) called Pawar in connection with the Maharashtra state cooperative bank scam, Ajit offered to resign as an MLA. Amid pressure from the investigative agencies and feeling that his political ambitions under his uncle were being curtailed, Ajit first attempted to break away after the 2019 elections when in an early-morning oath ceremony he joined hands with Devendra Fadnavis to form the government. Though Ajit claims it was done with Pawar Senior’s approval, the latter denies it and in any case, the BJP-NCP government lasted three days before Ajit returned to the NCP fold, publicly chastised. However, he landed on his feet and again found himself as the Deputy CM in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The final coup came in July 2023 as Ajit rebelled, this time successfully, taking away 40 MLAs as he joined the Mahayuti government and left Pawar severely weakened. “Since its formation in 1999, except for the five-year term from 2014-19, the NCP has always been part of the government. Even after 2019, be it MVA or Mahayuti, the NCP has been in power. The party thrives on power. This time, with a huge mandate on Mahayuti’s side, the government will run smoothly for the next five years and he faces no challenge for the time being,” said an NCP leader. In the Mahayuti, there was talk from time to time about disagreements between the NCP chief and Shinde. But with Fadnavis at the helm this time, Ajit Pawar looks set to have a far smoother time running his ministries even as he looks to further consolidate his party politically. On Wednesday, when Shinde was asked if he would take the oath as the Deputy CM, he kept deflecting and saying it would soon be revealed. In a light-hearted moment that drew laughs and chuckles, Ajit Pawar chipped in saying, “His (Shinde) decision will be known by evening, I am going to take the oath (unka sham tak samajh me aayega, main toh lene wala hoon).”
