Ajit Pawar had nursed the ambition of becoming the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for decades. However, fate had other plans, as the Deputy CM died in a plane crash on Wednesday morning in Pune's Baramati.
Ajit Pawar, who was the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in non-consecutive terms, served in the position for six terms under various governments. He worked as Deputy Chief Minister in the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. However, the top post always eluded him.
Back in 2023, Ajit Pawar’s uncle, Sharad Pawar, had said that his nephew would never become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. "Ajit Pawar becoming chief minister will remain only a dream," Sharad Pawar had said.
The statement came after Ajit Pawar, along with several rebel MLAs of the party, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena-led coalition government. The move led to a split within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing Ajit Pawar.
Ajit Pawar's political career
In 1982, Ajit Pawar began his political career after being elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991, he was elected as the chairman of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991 from the Baramati Parliamentary constituency and later vacated the seat for his uncle Sharad Pawar. He was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly seven times from the Baramati Assembly constituency. He first won in a 1991 by-election and subsequently in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014.
