Ajit Pawar Biography

About Ajit Pawar

Ajit Anantrao Pawar is a politician belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra. He chose to follow the footsteps of his uncle, NCP president Sharad Pawar, to become a politician and eventually the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He is popularly known as ‘Dada’ (elder brother) by his followers and close ones.

Early Life of Ajit Anantrao Pawar

Ajit Pawar was born on 22 July, 1959 in his grandparent’s place in Deolali Pravara, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. Ajit is the son of NCP president Sharad Pawar’s elder brother Anantrao Pawar, who used to work at Rajkamal Studios of V Shantaram. Ajit is married to Sunetra Pawar and the couple have two sons, Jay and Parth Pawar. Ajit pursued his education from Deolali Pravara and holds Secondary School Certificate from the Maharashtra Government. Pawar is educated to Secondary school level (equivalent to Junior High USA) or GCSE (UK).

Political Career of Ajit Pawar

Ajit Pawar started his political career in 1982 when he was still in his early 20s. His election to a sugar cooperative body was his first step in politics. In the year 1991, he went on to become the chairman of the Pune District Co-operative Bank. He was in this post for 16 long years. Ajit also got elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 from Baramati constituency but vacated the seat for his uncle Sharad Pawar who was then the Defence Minister of India in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government.

He got elected to the Maharashtra Assembly the same year and was the Minister of State for Agriculture and Power from November 1992 to February 1993. He got re-elected from the same constituency in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Some of the important positions he has held till now include Minister of State for Agriculture, Horticulture and Power, Minister of Water Resources (Krishna Valley and Kokan Irrigation, three times) and Deputy Chief Minister (September 29, 2012-25 September 2014).

Ajit is ambitious and aims to become Chief Minister of Maharashtra one day. Till now he always had his way in politics. Just after 2009 assembly election he expressed his desire of becoming Deputy Chief Minister. However, Chhagan Bhujbal was chosen for the position. But dramatically in December 2010 he got his wish fulfilled and became the Deputy CM. During September 2013, his name was dragged into irrigation scam and he was, therefore, forced to resign from his position. But he was reinstated to his Deputy CM’s chair with a clean chit on December 7, 2013 after considerable pressure from NCP, opposition allege.

Many people also regard him as the “tallest leader" of NCP in Maharashtra and some even point out that he is in direct power tussle with current NCP chief and his own uncle Sharad Pawar. However, he always projected himself as a follower of Sharad Pawar. He is not in good terms with erstwhile Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and many believe that he had engineered a revolt within the Congress against Chavan.

Controversies surrounding Ajit Pawar

• Controversy doesn’t seem to die down when it comes to Ajit Pawar. His name has often figured in corruption cases. Recently, Mumbai Police seized a car allegedly used by him stashed with Rs.4.85 lakh cash.
• Ajit Pawar has faced allegations as minister for water resources for providing unwarranted help in the development of Lavasa Lake City Project.
• In 2013, Ajit Pawar made a controversial remark during the drought crisis in Maharashtra. He apologised for his comment later after lot of pressure from the media. He is claimed to be the most corrupt politician in Maharashtra along with Sunil Tatkare, the then Irrigation minister. However, most of the allegations of corruption remain unproven.
• In 2014, while campaigning for his cousin Supriya Sule in a village in Baramati constituency, Ajit Pawar threatened the villagers that if they did not vote for Sule, he would punish them by cutting off their water supply.