Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: He was ‘dada’ to supporters and a headache to opponents – a workhorse politician with a sharp tongue and sharper instincts. Ajit Pawar never stopped chasing the top job and his politics always carried the impatience of a man running out of time. A six-time deputy chief minister, feared for his authority, respected for his administrative grip and often criticised for his rough edges, Pawar seemed perennially poised for Maharashtra’s top chair, yet never quite arrived there.
On Wednesday morning, his life ended suddenly in a plane crash near Baramati, his home turf, leaving behind a career defined as much by influence as by unfulfilled ambition.Ajit Pawar (66) was travelling from Mumbai to Baramati to campaign for local elections when the aircraft crashed during approach. All five on board were killed, including two of his staff and two crew members. Investigations are under way with authorities yet to confirm what caused the crash.But beyond the headlines of a tragic death lies a larger political story, that of a grassroots leader who mastered the state’s rural power networks, repeatedly reached the doorstep of power and then watched the chief ministership remain just out of reach.Here are 5 turning points of his life and politics:
1. Built in Baramati, forged in co-operative belt
Ajit Pawar’s political education began not in television studios but in Maharashtra’s most durable power factory – the sugar and co-operative ecosystem. Born on July 22, 1959, to Asha and Anantrao Pawar, he entered politics in 1982, when he was elected to a sugar factory board, following his uncle Sharad Pawar‘s path.The Baramati brand gave him what few leaders possess, a constituency that functions like a fortress and a political machinery that runs year-round. His rise was not accidental charisma. It was organisational engineering.
2. Deputy CM and the puntual ‘workaholic’
Pawar became deputy CM multiple times across shifting coalitions, with a record six stints, and earned the reputation of a punctual workaholic, unusual in a political culture infamous for delays.This was the phase that shaped his strongest political identity, the administrator who can “deliver”. Even rivals grudgingly admitted that he understood how the state’s machinery worked, and how to push it. His command over finance and planning ministries further consolidated that authority. He was expected to table the 2026–27 Maharashtra budget next month.
3. Controversies that bruised him, but didn’t break him
If Pawar’s supporters saw him as the decisive doer, his critics saw a leader who attracted controversies as routinely as he attracted power. Allegations linked to the irrigation scam and later controversies around his son Parth’s land deal became recurring political ammunition against him. Yet the pattern was consistent: the man stayed standing.His most infamous public controversy came in 2013, when he mocked the state’s drought crisis while addressing a rural gathering in Indapur, leading to outrage and a forced apology. The episode revealed both sides of his persona: politically astute, and often unfiltered.
4: The 2019 dawn swearing-in and the power hunger
In November 2019 came the political move that turned him from a state heavyweight into a national plotline: the surprise early-morning swearing-in with Devendra Fadnavis. Ajit Pawar became deputy CM in a government that lasted barely two days, but its impact lingered far longer.This wasn’t merely opportunism. It was a signal. Pawar never hid his ambition for the CM post. That morning was widely seen as him stepping out of the “uncle’s heir” frame and into the “I can take power” frame. It didn’t succeed, but it permanently defined him as Maharashtra’s most unpredictable power player.
5. 2023 split from Sharad Pawar, then a reunion
In July 2023, Ajit Pawar executed the biggest rupture of his career – he rebelled against Sharad Pawar, walked away with most MLAs, and aligned with the BJP-Shiv Sena government. The move didn’t just split a party, it split a legacy.Yet politics rarely respects personal drama. After a poor Lok Sabha showing where his faction won only one seat, he bounced back in the assembly polls with 41 seats, strengthening his position and silencing critics, at least temporarily.Then came the twist again. Ahead of civic polls in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar were seen effectively reuniting strategically to avoid vote-splitting. Pawar publicly justified it as practical politics, two factions fighting each other would only help opponents.That “reunion” fuelled speculation about a future merger of the factions, buzz that now hangs unresolved in the air after his sudden death.Six times deputy CM, Ajit Pawar remained the state’s most relentless power operator, feared by rivals and valued by allies. He shaped governments, split parties and rewrote equations, often overnight. He didn’t become chief minister, but in Maharashtra’s politics, few controlled the field like he did.
