Astute leader who reshaped Maha politics

For 32 of his 42 years in public life, Ajit Pawar enjoyed power.

- Yogesh Joshi

He was Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister for a record six terms across political formulations. But the one position that he openly aspired to—that of the chief minister—eluded him right until the end.His death in an air crash at 66 has abruptly ended a career marked by resilience, controversy, and an unrelenting drive for relevance at the highest level of power.

He was the first in the Pawar dynasty to make the ideological switch to share power with the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the process breaking the party built by his uncle Sharad Pawar. The alliance with the BJP— with its increasingly strident Hindutva tenor— did not always sit naturally with him. But he was also a man driven by political pragmatism. His brief, 90-hour alliance with Devendra Fadnavis, after the fractured verdict of 2019 assembly elections, was an augury of the events that would eventually define Maharashtra politics.

Ajit Pawar made his first foray in politics when he was elected to the board of a sugar factory in 1982, and was groomed by Sharad Pawar to be his political heir over the years. It was from the uncle that the nephew learnt the virtues of fostering a strong grassroots connection, an unrelenting work ethic so imperative for political success, and administrative chops.

But unlike Sharad Pawar, he harboured no national ambitions.