Ajit Pawar (66), Maharashtra’s longest serving Deputy Chief Minister passed away in an air crash near his home — Baramati, on Wednesday (January 28, 2026), bringing his political career spanning four decades to an abrupt end.
Fondly known as ‘Ajit Dada’, the Pawar scion had recently buried hatchet with his mentor and uncle Sharad Pawar to contest the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic polls jointly as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In spite of a poll drubbing in Pune, merger of the two NCP factions appeared to be on the cards as the uncle and nephew recently met in Pune. Ajit Pawar is survived by his wife Sunetra Pawar (an NCP Rajya Sabha MP) and his sons – Jay and Parth.
In his 44 years of public service, Ajit Pawar has followed his uncle’s footsteps in politics – from the sugar cooperatives in Baramati to six-time Deputy Chief Minister of the State. Known as Maharashtra’s ‘forever CM-in-waiting’, scams, corruption and betrayal dotted his long political career as he transformed from his uncle’s shadow to robbing him of his party along with its iconic symbol – the clock.
Here’s a look at his political highs and lows:
1959-1980s: Pawar scion
Born to Anantrao and Ashatai Pawar on July 22, 1959 in Deolali town in Ahmednagar, Ajit Pawar was introduced to politics since its ‘Samyukta Maharashtra’ movement days. With then-Congress leader Sharad Pawar as his uncle, Ajit Pawar was destined to follow his footsteps. Untimely death of his father forced him to drop out of college and take care of his family.
Like his uncle, Ajit Pawar began his career in the cooperatives sector, heading a sugar factory, Pune district cooperative Bank before taking the electoral plunge from Baramati in 1991.
1991-1999: Cooperatives to Maharashtra Cabinet
After Mr. Pawar’s [Sharad Pawar] unsuccessful bid as Congress’ Prime Ministerial pick in the wake of assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, he settled for a national role as Congress’ Defence Minister. Succeeding him at his bastion – Baramati, his nephew Ajit Pawar contested the 1991 by-elections and won by 86,915 votes. Since then, Ajit Pawar has held onto the seat, even trumping his nephew Yugendra Shrinivas Pawar in the 2024 polls by more than a lakh votes. The younger Pawar had the backing of the entire clan with even Sharad Pawar’s public-shy wife Pratibha campaigning for him.
Under his uncle’s Chief Ministership, he held several portfolios such as Agriculture, Power, Soil Conservation, Power and Planning, slowly rising the ranks of the Congress party, building his reputation as a detail-oriented politician.
As Mr. Pawar [Sharad Pawar] shook the foundations of the grand old Congress party by splitting away and forming the NCP in 1999, Ajit Pawar followed him along with prominent MLAs such as Chhagan Bhujbal and Madhukar Pichad. He played a significant part in stitching the NCP-Congress alliance by keeping the flock together.
Watch | Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar, four others, killed in Baramati plane crash
2000-2014: Stints as Deputy CM and Irrigation scam
As Congress’ Vilasrao Deshmukh took charge as CM in 1999, Ajit Pawar took reins of the Irrigation Ministry and later Water Resources. Under his helm, several projects were launched in drought-ridden Vidarbha region worth more than ₹70,000 crore. In 2004, when Deshmukh was retained as CM, Ajit Pawar continued as Irrigation Minister but was soon embroiled in a corruption scandal for allegedly bypassing norms while awarding contracts, inflating project costs, expenditure irregularities.
After Deshmukh stepped down as Chief Minister in the wake of the 26/11 attacks in 2008, Ajit Pawar retained his Ministries and continued as Pune’s Guardian Minister under the new Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan. In 2009, when the Congress-NCP was re-elected for the third time, Ajit Pawar added the Energy Ministry to his portfolio and was also sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister in 2010. He survived the shake-up of the State Government in 2012 owing to the Adarsh Housing scam, as the Congress replaced its CM Ashok Chavan with Union Minister of State Prithviraj Chavan as his successor. Additionally, he was given the Finance and Planning portfolios, apart from Irrigation and Energy.
Known as a ‘no-nonsense, tough-talking, brash‘ politician, Ajit Pawar clashed with the new CM over his plans to redevelop Mumbai, the Lavasa project near Pune. As the State’s Finance Minister, he pulled up Ministers for review of their Departments prior to Budget preparation, increased sales tax revenue and expanded agriculture reforms. Mr. Chavan also put Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank under administrators, irking Ajit Pawar and other NCP senior MLAs as demands for probe into the irrigation scam grew. At the NCP-level, Ajit Pawar was instrumental in helming the party’s electoral success in zilla, panchayat samiti and municipal corporations across the State.
The 2012 State’s Economic Survey revealed that despite spending ₹70,000 crore in irrigation projects in the past decade (1999-2009), only 0.1% of the State’s potential had been utilised. Inspite of Mr. Chavan promising a ‘white paper’ on the issue, Ajit Pawar resigned from the Cabinet and as Deputy CM as the Irrigation Department revealed a loss of ₹15,000 crore loss in projects in Vidarbha, Konkan and north Maharashtra.
However, within months, the promised ‘white paper’ exonerated Ajit Pawar with NCP chief Sharad Pawar defending his nephew’s actions. In December 2012, he was reinstated as Deputy CM and given back his portfolios. A Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report unearthed cost overruns amounting to ₹27,000 crores in 242 irrigation projects under Ajit Pawar’s tenure. However, in 2019, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) gave a clean chit to Ajit Pawar in several projects in Vidarbha, noting that his actions were not ‘malicious’.
2019-2023: Switching loyalties
After a stint in the Opposition between 2014-2019, Ajit Pawar jumped the gun amid talks between Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to ally with Devendra Fadnavis and take oath as Deputy CM. A day after the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena alliance i.e. the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was formed with Mr. Thackeray announced as its CM pick, Ajit Pawar produced a letter proclaiming the support of all 54 NCP MLAs and extended support to the BJP.
After President Ram Nath Kovind revoked the President’s rule imposed in Maharashtra in the post-poll impasse at 5:47 a.m. on November 24, 2019, Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as CM at 7:50 a.m. A behind-the-scenes report by The Hindu revealed that the BJP was already in talks with Ajit Pawar amid NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena negotiations.
The Fadnavis-Ajit Pawar government fell apart within three days as the Pawar patriarch managed to regain the support of 44 NCP MLAs, while the remaining nine (excluding Ajit Pawar) were rounded up within the next day and holed up in a Mumbai hotel. Once Supreme Court ordered an open ballot vote of confidence in the State Assembly, Ajit Pawar switched sides once again and was promptly sworn in as Deputy CM and given portfolios of Finance, Planning and State excise along with Guardianship of Pune.
2023-2026: Rebellion to reconciliation
In June 2022, Eknath Shinde rebelled splitting the Shiv Sena into two, walking away with 38 of the 54 MLAs and reducing the Thackeray government into a minority. Ajit Pawar’s fourth stint as Deputy CM was cut-short as Mr. Shinde was chosen as the Mahayuti’s CM while Mr. Fadnavis chose to be his Deputy.
On May 2, 2023, Sharad Pawar announced his intent to resign as NCP chief, hinting at Ajit Pawar’s elevation to the role. However, three days later, Sharad Pawar revoked his resignation citing ‘strong sentiments’ among the cadre, disgruntling Ajit Pawar who had been in the wings since 2014. The final blow to his dreams to succeed his uncle as NCP chief came on June 10, when Supriya Sule – Sharad Pawar’s daughter and Praful Patel, Ajit Pawar’s close aide were named as the party’s working presidents.
A month later, Ajit Pawar rebelled again for one last time and took oath as Deputy CM for the fifth time. Splitting away with 32 NCP MLAs, Ajit Pawar took over the Finance Ministries while senior NCP leaders Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Aatram Dharamraobaba Bhagwantrao, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode, and Anil Patil were inducted into the Shinde Cabinet. Later, Ajit Pawar declared himself as NCP chief saying, “For us, Saheb (Sharad Pawar) is a deity, and we have deep respect for him. You are 83, aren’t you going to stop? Give us your blessings”. His faction has also been recognised as the NCP and awarded the clock symbol by the Election Commission of India. The Supreme Court case on which faction is the NCP is ongoing.
After this Mahayuti – BJP-Sena-NCP won the 2024 State polls, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as Deputy CM for a sixth time, surpassing his own record as the State’s longest serving Deputy. Though his faction failed to trump his uncle’s faction NCP-Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP) in the Lok Sabha polls, the Ladki Bahin Scheme powered the Mahayuti to victory, with the NCP winning 29 of the 36 seats where the two factions clashed.
Amid discontent among the Sena, the BJP and RSS cadres over the clash of ideologies with the NCP, Ajit Pawar began distancing himself from several communal statements spewed by BJP leaders. In a last bid to regain his turf, Ajit Pawar allied with the NCP(SP) for the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic polls. Both Ms. Sule and Ajit Pawar presented a united front and unveil their joint manifesto for the two corporations. As Senior NCP leader Sunil Tatkare hinted at a merger of the two faction nationally, the Pawar clan’s efforts were wasted. The BJP turfed out the NCP winning 119 of the 165 seats in Pune and 84 of the 128 seats in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
With Ajit Pawar’s tragic death, the future of his faction remains in question as Sharad Pawar now remains as NCP’s most influential leader.
