Ajit Pawar - Maharashtra’s Man for All Seasons Humbly Clocks Out

“Leaders like Ajit Pawar continue to earn respect even in their absence as their work speaks volumes”. 

28th January was a business-as-usual day for the late Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar. A flight to his favourite karmabhoomi (workplace), Baramati, and addressing the people of his own constituency for the ongoing local body elections in the state. Yet, what wasn't thought of was that this would be the last and final take-off of Maharashtra's development man, who passed away in an air crash, after his private airplane saw landing failure.

Illustration by The Geostrata

The charred remains of the plane also spoke volumes about people's favourite Dada, where at the crash site, there were documents strewn, which happened to be people's requests and needs. Ajit Dada was known for his jansampark (people's connect) where he took care of the needs and requirements of the people, delivering policy, justice and help in one stop manner; starting early morning, every day around 6:30 am. 

HUMBLY YOURS, MAHARASHTRA'S DADA

Born on 22nd July, 1959, Ajit Pawar was born in an agricultural family, which was closely associated with the workers' cooperative, with one of his grandparents serving in the Pune local board pre-independence.

Early on, he had the influence of his uncle, Sharad Pawar, who was soon to be a national figure in Indian politics.

He lost his father, Anantrao Pawar, at the cusp of 18 years to be taken under the complete tutelage of his uncle. Sharad Pawar, by then, was an MLA (member of the legislative assembly) and a rising star in the party ranks. 

And one thing that can be truly said about Ajit Dada is his ability to be his uncle's shadow, until recently. And he took his uncle's grassroots politics, lock, stock and barrel, implementing it as he entered public life in the early 1980s. He built his people connections using the co-operative banks, sugar mills and other such institutions of which his uncle was considered a flag bearer. 

His first foray into electoral politics was in 1991, when, as a Congress candidate, he won the Baramati Lok Sabha.

Quite soon, he vacated the seat in favour of his uncle, as Sharad Pawar went on to become the Defence minister in P.V. Narasimha’s government. The boundaries got clearly divided, as state politics became Ajit Dada's foray with his uncle setting sights on Delhi's power corridors. 

LEADERSHIP BEYOND SELF

Ajit Pawar went on to represent this very Baramati constituency in the state legislative assembly, growing in stature one term at a time. Having started as a minister of State under his uncle's chief ministership, his real political acumen came to light when his uncle and family split from the Congress over Sonia Gandhi's foreign citizenship issue and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).  

He started gaining importance by serving under every chief minister from Sushil Kumar Shinde to Vilasrao Deshmukh, Uddhav Thackeray in the later years and Devendra Fadnavis. It was with Devendra Fadnavis that he was considered to have the most comfort and their vision for public policy deliverables made it even a better working partnership. 

ARCHITECT OF MODERN CITIES

Ajit Dada was known as the architect of modernising cities like Pimpri-Chinchwad and his own city of Baramati. It was not for nothing that from Pune to Baramati, everything was shut down as the state turned to a three-day mourning with the day of passing declared as a state holiday.

From industrial corridors to textile parks to educational institutions. It was his knack to build and bolster Maharashtra's agricultural roots that he undertook the work of irrigation minister, and the department was undergoing revolutionary change. This, along with his already existing departments of finance, planning and both public and rural works. When politicians believed in giving election sops like foregoing loans, he believed in building institutions.

In fact, he could be called one of the last stars of Maharashtra's political vanguard that took politics as a means of social change. His speeches were sprinkled with calls to people to live peacefully, build a decent life and stay away from social ills. And amidst all of this, he was the quintessential politician who could crack up the audience with his humorous takes and, in the very next second, answer serious policy-related questions. 

Amongst policy stakeholders, Dada was considered and respected for his control and understanding of governance intricacy. The ability to dictate and get the best work out of the state administration was a quality only a few leaders have had, and Dada would be missed for that. In addition to this, his ever-increasing winning margin from his own seat was just one of the symbols of his popularity.

People from the most rural settings of the state thought of him as someone who was their own representative due to his gavthi (rustic) talk. Having served as the deputy chief minister for the longest time period, he earned the moniker of permanent deputy Chief Minister, though having come close to the top position, once in 2009, and having been pitched for it again, if he continued to be a part of the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA).

Yet, someone who learnt politics from the purported “master-strategist”, Sharad Pawar, used his uncle's tactics twice to break away from the senior Pawar’s shadow. 

POLITICAL FALLOUT TO STUPENDOUS COMEBACK

The first time, in 2019, Maharashtra saw a swearing ceremony at 4 a.m, when Sharad Pawar abetted both Ajit Dada and Devendra Fadnavis to form the government, only to backtrack and put Dada in a tight spot. Yet, he bowed down with grace and joined the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA).

However, after the breakup of Shiv Sena, Ajit Dada read the writing on the wall, repeatedly urging his uncle and sister, MP Supriya Sule, to build a working relationship with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to supplement the NCP’s electoral numbers and revive its once-held National party status.

The last and final straw came when back-room negotiations between both the uncle and nephew failed to make any headway on the issue of transferring command to the younger generation. A lot of push and pull over Ajit Pawar being pushed out of the picture and Sharad Pawar keeping it all for his daughter Supriya Sule, led to a split on 2nd July, 2023. Then came the shocker: Ajit Dada was the one controlling the cadre and the maximum number of MLAs, who had, individually, too, tried to convince senior Pawar to side with the NDA.

Ajit Pawar took with him 41 MLAs, out of the total of 53, while the 2024 general elections dented his prospects, his comeback was due in the state legislative elections, winning back all his MLAs and maintaining the seat count.

Though the factions were on their way to a merger, which was to be announced in the first week of February, with Dada not amidst his people, the talks seemed stalled. However, his wife Sunetra Pawar has been roped in to take forward the legislature party of NCP as she took oath as Maharashtra's 1st woman deputy chief minister.

 In the middle of all of this, he maintained that the split was in the party over choice of alliances but not over ideology, family powerplay or any other media-inflated stories. The courtesy which he maintained towards his uncle and his faction of the NCP, too, remained cordial. And that was more to do with the public rapport he had cultivated over the years of his work, delivering speedy justice to people.

What could be said about Ajit Pawar was his ability to build political careers of those who were left to fend for themselves, with leaders like Dhananjay Munde, Sunil Shelke, Amol Mitkari, being the party's young guns, in sync with its old guard of Hasan Mushrif, Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare. 

REST WELL, AJIT DADA

A state that saw clear caste lines being driven to muster strength in electoral numbers, Ajit Dada stood forever to his ideals of development politics. A credit which even his opponents face, he was one who never mentioned caste as a “political card”. What made Ajit Dada stand out in his participation in coalition politics was not being burdened by the BJP and its imposing stance on its alliance partners.

He stood firm to his ideals of “Shiv-Sahu-Phule-Ambedkar”, often publicly critical of divisive, religion and caste-based politics. As the final prayer for his humble soul, his people's centrism, infrastructure policy, far-sightedness and deft political handling of situations, would be remembered, respected and revered.

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BY KAUSHAL SINGH AND ASHISH SAHUJI

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