After one year of split in Shiv Sena, which led to the fall of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) joined the Eknath Shinde government on Sunday, with Ajit Pawar taking oath as the Deputy CM of Maharashtra for the fifth time.
In the Congress-NCP government in 2009, Ajit served as the Deputy CM in Prithviraj and Ashok Chavan’s cabinet. In 2019, Ajit took oath again in early morning swearing-in in the Devendra Fadnavis cabinet, but the government lasted only for a few days before Uddhav Thackeray took over as Chief Minister and Ajit was again sworn in as Deputy CM. And today, his political life comes a full circle when he took oath for the fifth time as the Deputy CM.
Ajit started his political career by contesting in the 1991-92 Lok Sabha elections from Baramati. Later, he vacated the seat for his uncle and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who became the defence minister in the Narsimha Rao government. Ajit had been representing the Baramati state assembly constituency from 1995 to 2019.
He started his career as junior minister. In 1991-92, when he returned to the state politics, Ajit served as the state minister of agriculture and power in the Sudhakar Naik’s government. Between 1992 and 1993, when Sharad Pawar came back to the state as CM, Ajit served as junior minister and took over the soil conservation portfolio.
But in 1999, when the Congress-NCP government came to the power, Ajit was elevated as the irrigation minister in the Vilasrao Deshmukh’s government. During the Sushilkumar Shinde government between 2003 and 2004, Ajit was given an additional charge of rural development.
In 2019, Ajit took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister under two different Chief Ministers. First, in early morning swearing-in, he took oath as Deputy CM in Fadnavis government, which lasted for a few days. Then, he again took oath as Deputy CM in Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.
Since 2019, Ajit’s family members and relatives have been troubled by the central agencies, with offices of his son in Mumbai being raided. Both of Ajit’s sisters’ houses in Pune and other properties also came under the scanner of central agencies.
NCP MLAs and MPs, who have extended their support to Ajit, includes Chaggan Bhujbal, who had faced the ED inquiry, Hasan Mushrif who is also under ED scanner. Both leaders took oath as ministers today.
Interestingly, Sunil Tatkare’s daughter Aditi, who served as junior minister in the MVA, was also given a cabinet seat in the Shinde government. Former home minister of Maharashtra Dilip Walse Patil, who was considered as close aid of Sharad Pawar, was also sworn in as minister today.
It is learnt that Ajit was resentful after being denied a bigger role in the party while he expressed his desire to get relieved from the responsibility of the Leader of Opposition (LOP). The party leadership had not taken any decision on his demand during the last meeting of national leaders in Delhi.
But before Sharad Pawar could have decided the fate of Ajit, he along with 30-35 MLAs have given his support to the Shinde-Fadnavis government.
State Assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar confirmed to media that he has accepted the resignation of Ajit Pawar as the LOP.
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