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.
Most probably, it will happen on Wednesday. My guess is strictures on governor could be mild. This is so as Rohatgi and Tushar Mehta have argued coherently. Both warring parties are pretending to be morally superior. But this case is nothing different from many others in the past. The trio alliance is in a better position to win the floor test. BJP has lost ground and simply doesn’t have numbers. The magic rope trick they tried has miserably failed. Yet, durability of NCP-Sena-Congress government is suspect. With Ajit Pawar on the opposite side, defection are bound to take place sooner or later. Fresh elections is the only remedy.
Isn’t the Supreme Court being rather helpful to the ruling party in Mah? If the order is pronounced on Tuesday, surely another 24 hours time would be given, totallying to three days. Enough for the Chanakya to turn the world upside down!
The letters, for which the matter was adjourned by a day, could have been called for by fax or e mail. Since time is of the essence, directions for conducting a floor test could have been issued today, to be followed by a more detailed order. Delay facilitates poaching. 2. 53 NCP MLAs are with Shri Sharad Pawar. Apparently, the 54 signatures on the letter of support tendered by Shri Ajit Pawar were in favour of his appointment as legislative party leader, not for support to the new formation.
The farce continues. Some wise man once said, maybe of the current ruling dispensation, that…
Kehte hain ki…agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to puri kayanat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.