Ajit Pawar

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Ajit Pawar
Pawar in 2021
8th Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 December 2024 (2024-12-05) Serving with Eknath Shinde
Governor	C. P. Radhakrishnan
Chief Minister	Devendra Fadnavis
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning State Excise
Preceded by	Devendra Fadnavis Himself
In office 2 July 2023 – 5 December 2024 Serving with Devendra Fadnavis
Governor	Ramesh Bais C. P. Radhakrishnan
Chief Minister	Eknath Shinde
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning
Preceded by	Himself Devendra Fadnavis
Succeeded by	Eknath Shinde Himself
In office 30 December 2019 – 29 June 2022[1]
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Chief Minister	Uddhav Thackeray
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning State Excise (additional charge)
Preceded by	Himself
Succeeded by	Devendra Fadnavis
In office 23 November 2019 – 26 November 2019
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Chief Minister	Devendra Fadnavis
Ministry and Departments	Minister without Portfolio
Preceded by	President's rule
Succeeded by	Himself
In office 25 October 2012 – 26 September 2014
Governor	Om Prakash Kohli (additional charge) C. Vidyasagar Rao
Chief Minister	Prithviraj Chavan
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning Energy
Preceded by	Himself
Succeeded by	President's rule
In office 10 November 2010 – 25 September 2012
Governor	K. Sankaranarayanan
Chief Minister	Prithviraj Chavan
Ministry and Departments	Finance Planning Energy
Preceded by	Chhagan Bhujbal
Succeeded by	Himself
23rd Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
In office 4 July 2022 – 2 July 2023
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari Ramesh Bais
Deputy	Balasaheb Thorat
Chief Minister	Eknath Shinde
Speaker of the House	Zirwal Narhari Sitaram (acting) Rahul Narwekar
Preceded by	Devendra Fadnavis
Succeeded by	Jitendra Awhad (acting)
Leader of the House in Maharashtra Legislative Council
In office 24 February 2020 – 29 June 2022
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Deputy	Subhash Desai
Chairman	Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar
Preceded by	Chandrakant Patil Subhash Desai (acting)
Succeeded by	Devendra Fadnavis
In office 11 November 2010 – 25 September 2012
Governor	K. Sankaranarayanan
Chairman	Shivajirao Deshmukh
Preceded by	Chhagan Bhujbal
Succeeded by	R. R. Patil
Deputy Leader of the House inMaharashtra Legislative Assembly
In office 30 December 2019 – 29 June 2022
Governor	Bhagat Singh Koshyari
Speaker	Nana Patole Zirwal Narhari Sitaram (acting)
Leader of the House	Uddhav Thackeray
Preceded by	Girish Mahajan
Succeeded by	Devendra Fadnavis
Cabinet Minister in Government of Maharashtra
In office 7 November 2009 – 10 November 2010
Governor	S. C. Jamir K. Sankaranarayanan
Ministry and Departments	Water Resources Krishna Valley Irrigation Corporation Energy
Chief Minister	Ashok Chavan
Preceded by	Sunil Tatkare Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar
Succeeded by	Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar Sunil Tatkare
In office 8 December 2008 – 6 November 2009
Governor	S. C. Jamir
Ministry and Departments	Water Resources Water Supply Sanitation Command Area Development
Chief Minister	Ashok Chavan
In office 9 November 2004 – 1 December 2008
Governor	Mohammed Fazal S. M. Krishna S. C. Jamir
Ministry and Departments	Water Resources Excluding Krishna Valley Corporation
Chief Minister	Vilasrao Deshmukh
Member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 1991
Preceded by	Sharad Pawar
Constituency	Baramati
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 3 May 1991 – 20 June 1991
Preceded by	Shankarrao Bajirao Patil
Succeeded by	Sharad Pawar
Constituency	Baramati, Maharashtra
Personal details
Born	(1959-07-22) 22 July 1959 (age 65) Deolali Pravara, Bombay State, India (present-day Maharashtra)
Political party	Nationalist Congress Party
Other political affiliations	National Democratic Alliance (2023–)
Spouse	Sunetra Pawar ​ (m. 1985)​
Children	2
Residence	9, Premcourt Churchgate, Mumbai
Occupation	Politician
Website	www.ajitpawar.org
Nickname	Ajit Dada

Ajit Ashatai Anantrao Pawar^[2] (Marathi pronunciation: [əd͡ʒit̪ pəʋaːɾ]; born 22 July 1959)^[3] is an Indian politician serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra along with Eknath Shinde since 5 December 2024. He is the longest serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra non-consecutively.^[4] He has served this position for 6 terms within various governments. He has worked as deputy chief minister within the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.^[5]

He served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 2022 to 2023 and represented Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in 1991.^[6][7] He served as deputy chief minister many times.^[8]

Pawar was born in Deolali Pravara, Ahmednagar district.^[9] He is son of Anantrao Pawar, the brother of Sharad Pawar, the president of the Nationalist Congress Party and a four-time former Chief Minister of Maharashtra.^[10][11] He did his schooling Deolali Pravara but dropped out of college to help his family after the death of his father.

Following the footsteps of his uncle Sharad Pawar in Indian National Congress,^[12] Ajit made his first foray into politics in 1982 when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991, he was elected as the chairman of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank and remained in the post for the next 16 years.

He was also elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991 from the Baramati Parliamentary constituency. He later vacated the seat for his uncle, who then become the Defence Minister in Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao's government.

Later, he was elected seven times to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Baramati Assembly constituency. He first won in the 1991 by election and retained it for five consecutive terms in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014.^[13][14][15] He served as the Minister of State for Agriculture and Power in CM Sudhakarrao Naik's government from 1991 to 1992.^[16]

He became the Minister of State for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning in 1992 when Sharad Pawar became the Chief Minister. In 1999, as part of the INC-NCP coalition government, he became a Cabinet Minister responsible for the Irrigation Department. He was additionally given the Rural Development Department in 2003 as part of Sushilkumar Shinde's cabinet.^[16] After the INC-NCP coalition won in the 2004 Assembly elections, he retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh's and later Ashok Chavan's cabinets.^[17]

On 23 November 2019, he defected from NCP and joined a government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and became the Deputy Chief Minister.^[18][19] He submitted a paper with the signatures of NCP's MLAs to the Governor to prove the government's majority. However, the government collapsed less than 80 hours later and he resigned along with then-CM Devendra Fadnavis. He subsequently returned to the NCP, and on 1 December 2019, it was announced that he would take over as Deputy CM for the Maha Vikas Aghadi government after the start of the winter session of the state legislature on 16 December.^[20]

In 2022, due to a split in the Shiv Sena, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed. After the rebel Shiv Sena faction and BJP formed a government with Eknath Shinde as CM, Pawar became the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.^[21]

Having the support of the majority of the erstwhile NCP's MLAs, he also claimed the position of president of the NCP, as well as the party's name and its electoral symbol.^[22][23] On 7 February 2024, The Election Commission Of India (ECI) awarded the party name and symbol to the faction headed by Ajit. The faction led by Sharad Pawar will be henceforth known as Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).^[24][23]

This article's "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality. Please help rewrite or integrate negative information to other sections through discussion on the talk page. (June 2022)

There are allegations that, as the minister for water resources, he helped the development of Lavasa,^[25] a project touted as a "vision of Sharad Pawar". The Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) leased 141.15 ha (348.8 acres) to Lavasa in August 2002, which included part of the Warasgaon dam reservoir. The lease between MKVDC and Lavasa was executed at rates far below the market rate.^[26]

In September 2012, there were accusations that there had been misappropriation to the tune of Rs. 70,000 crores. These allegations were made by the Maharashtra bureaucrat Vijay Pandhare, and caused the anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania to demand Pawar's resignation as a minister. However, the allegations were not proved, and Ajit was reinstated as the Deputy CM of Maharashtra.^[27]

On 7 April 2013, Pawar's statement at a speech in Indapur sparked controversy due to its alleged callousness. In response to a 55-day fast by activists protesting the Maharashtra governments inability to provide water during a drought, he asked whether he should "urinate into [the dam]" to make up for the lack of water in it. After a public outcry against his statement, he publicly apologised, saying that the comment was the "biggest mistake of [his] life".^[28]

• Media related to Ajit Pawar at Wikimedia Commons
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