Ajit Pawar, popularly called Ajit Dada, is a prominent Maharashtra politician, and nephew of Sharad Pawar, the co-founder of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and former union minister.
In 2023, Ajit Pawar, along with some MLAs, split from the NCP and joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government in the state. He then went on to serve as a co-deputy CM along with the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis under CM Eknath Shinde. A year prior to this, Ajit Pawar was the leader of the opposition in the state assembly and the finance minister for three years under the then MVA government of the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena. Pawar has a history of defections; in 2019, too, he defected from the party to become the Deputy CM under Fadnavis, which lasted just a few days.
Ajit Pawar is an MLA from Baramati, a family constituency for the Pawars. He has represented Baramati in the Vidhan Sabha since 1995, and previously served as Minister of State for Agriculture and Power, Minister of State for Soil Conservation, Power, and Planning in 1992, and Cabinet Minister responsible for the Irrigation Department in 1999.
Dirty power savvy politics, what else?
The biggest losers in the entire power savvy melodrama are the hapless voters, whose mandate has been grossly violated by this self-centered leadership of the Sjiv Sena, Congress and the NCP, which was extremely desperate to ascend to the seat of power here. What else could explain their coming together despite their vast ideological differences? An old saying very famously says: There are no permanent friends or foes in politics. Addedly, while the necessity is said to be the mother of all inventions but political necessity has become the ‘super mother’ of all unholy and unethical combinations in the present era. One just shudders to imagine whether voters should henceforth take the trouble of going to vote at all (as per their own choices) more so when their votes may at any time be grossly misused for some ulterior motives by our political masters and that too in the name of people itself. Jai Maharashtra!
Earlier BJP’s leadership had failed to understand the ambitions of Shiv Sena leaders. Now it has failed to understand the abilities of Ajit Pawar to bear the pressure from family. Something is seriously missing in BJP’s leadership.
Glad you finally reached there. Der aaye durust aaye.
But start crying for India: BJP’s replacement is the Congress, that though may be better on the secularism scale, but for handling the economic crisis is hardly better.
The people of Maharashtra could certainly have been spared of all this undue misery, BJP ought to introspect.
Wait for the next round after Jharkhand elections. This state too is going to throw up a hung assembly. Let’s what game happens then?
The Office of the President and the Governor have both been demeaned. Who is responsible ?
What about the Supreme Court? It should have asked for a show of strength on Sunday itself.
Chaal, charitra aur chehra!
Vinashkale viprit buddhi.
BJP has played all its cards (Kashmir, Triple Talaq, Ayodhya). It’s left with nothing now. It was always intellectually bankrupt.
It’s India’s tragedy that the Congress sans MMS will be hardly better. Rahul Gandhi is better off settling in Europe than learning on the job of how to run a hopelessly complex country like India. That Sonia and the Congress should even think of him ss PM is frightening.
India is caught between a rock and a hard place.
What a sad, albeit correct assessment. It is time again for some churn in Indian politics. Only genuine activism led politics can pave the way for better society. There was time when Arvind Kejriwal became THE HOPE (my hope)…middle class, educated, meritorious!!!! Are we left with any alternatives?
Sorry, the comment above is a duplicate comment that was intended for our friend ak. dev above.
You are right: the new hope on the horizon is the AAP party. But maybe regional parties are the answer. Kamal Haasan?
India’s had worse crises before. All said, Indira Gandhi’s Emergency was worse. And India came out of it stronger.
What happens now to the cases that were withdrawn by state agencies on Ajit Pawar.
This should raise few questions within BJP. It one thing that the party was not able to form government due to disagreement with its partner Shiv Sena. However, thereafter was there any need to enact the puerile political drama of forming a government with Ajit Pawar, who is not a very reliable politician. The party has to introspect. The sordid episode has dented the party’s image. I think that this is a huge set back to BJP, who is now perceived as a party having expertise in Machiavellian tricks of deception and conspiracies. A rethink is necessary.
There was no need for a brazen drama in the first place. Shameful politics…on both sides. Kuch to junta ka bhi socho? The same broken roads, pathetic drainage and polluted air!!!
This model of running the state with a few trusted bureaucrats – who will now get fresh postings – does not work. There was a lot of slick PR. A fabled War Room. Not reflected on the ground.