Power and ambition: The ultimate political player who broke ranks

On Sunday, NCP leader Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra for the fifth unprecedented time when the 63-year-old decided to realign with the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government.

- Faisal Malik

It was in November 2010 that Ajit first became the deputy chief minister after flexing his muscle within the NCP, thwarting his uncle and party chief Sharad Pawar's plan to appoint another leader and party heavyweight Chhagan Bhujbal for the role.

Amid allegations of irregularities in irrigation projects, Ajit was forced to resign in September 2012, but returned in three months after obtaining a clean chit for himself through a white paper on irrigation prepared by the then Congress-NCP government.

In November 2019, when Ajit was sworn in as the deputy chief minister for the shortest term as the government led by Fadnavis, which took oath in a hush-hush ceremony at Raj Bhavan, lasted for around 80 hours.

The NCP leader again became the deputy chief minister in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government led by the then Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and remained in the position for two-and-half years, till the coalition government collapsed in June last year.