100 days in office: Ajit’s struggles are far from over
How Pawar is striving to still settle in the saddle, despite joining the alliance government with much ambition
As he completed 100 days in office as deputy chief minister in the state’s three-party alliance government on October 10, Ajit Pawar released a two-page letter for the people explaining why he split the party formed by his mentor and veteran Maharashtra politician Sharad Pawar. “The sole intention was the development policies and welfare of the people,” he insisted, citing the example of late Y B Chavan, the state’s first chief minister, also his uncle’s mentor.
The note came soon after he tried to flex his muscle and forced his allies to accommodate him and his colleagues as guardian ministers. While Pawar took over the baton from BJP’s Chandrakant Patil, seven of his colleagues managed to get the plum posts.
These were strong signs of Ajit trying to emerge from his uncle’s shadow and his attempt to chart an independent course in state politics. However, it was too soon to celebrate, evidenced by the developments over the past few weeks.
In the July coup, Ajit Pawar managed to win over a majority of the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) MLAs -- 42 out of 53. He also has support of five of nine MLCs in the council as well as all eight party MLAs in Nagaland. And he is backed by party heavyweights Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil and Hasan Mushrif.
He managed to bag the deputy chief ministership with the crucial finance portfolio and ministerial berths for eight of his colleagues; few more are likely in the next state cabinet reshuffle. Now, there are no threats from central agencies either, who will dig up his past cases – the infamous ₹70,000 crore irrigation scam became a weapon that BJP used against him for 10 years. He doesn’t have to worry about names of his family members appearing as accused in the ED’s case in the transactions related to a private sugar factory.
But it’s not a clear sky for Ajit, and the clouds often loom large.
The first high soon after joining the Eknath Shinde-led government has dulled; and Ajit is trying to settle down as the number three in the power hierarchy, after the chief minister and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. He is not as powerful as he was in successive Congress-NCP governments or the previous MVA government when Uddhav Thackeray had given him a free hand.
He is struggling to create his identity with BJP as an ally all the while trying to hold on to the traditional NCP-Congress voter base.
That he has his eyes on the chief minister’s chair is known to all – it is something he had indicated while addressing his first party conclave at Mumbai Education Trust, in Bandra, after the split. He was candid that after his rebellion, his uncle could not win the majority on his own, and he would do that. “We will contest at least 90 seats in the next assembly election and aim to become the largest party,” he had said.
The BJP allowed him to step into the three-party alliance, hoping he would deliver in the Lok Sabha elections, as their internal surveys had indicated that the Shinde-led Shiv Sena was failing to meet their expectations. But Ajit’s attempt to dominate all the authorities has irked BJP leaders.
On August 8, he chaired a review meeting of infrastructure projects that were being monitored by the chief minister’s war room. This was not taken too kindly by Shinde as Ajit formed another cell, ‘project monitoring unit’ to monitor projects in Pune.
On August 21, as finance minister, he put stringent conditions for six sugar cooperative mills controlled by BJP leaders for securing loan from National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). The decision was reversed by CM Shinde on November 30. Soon after that, Shinde decided that all the files cleared by Ajit Pawar would first go to Fadnavis and then come to him for final approval.
“This upset him as he did not wish to be restrained,” said a senior NCP leader.
When the CM accepted the demands of the Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, Ajit was displeased, as he felt the government had buckled without considering the consequence of such decisions.
He skipped the state cabinet’s weekly meeting a fortnight ago and also chose not to attend a couple of government functions, sending a clear signal that he was displeased.
“Ajit dada was insisting that the power sharing agreement worked out between the three parties be implemented immediately. We need to fill vacant posts in the cabinet, get our workers on government undertakings and take quick decisions on a few pending issues. With barely a year to next assembly elections, we do not have much time to show our governance. It was not happening so he sent a message that he was not happy,” said a close Ajit aide.
It briefly worked as Shinde and Fadnavis made trips to New Delhi and tried to sort out pending issues in power distribution between three parties – seven of his ministers have got the guardian ministers’ posts including Pune district for Ajit himself. He is yet to get the desired districts for two of his ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Aditi Tatkare following opposition by the Shinde-led Sena. He has now been assured that his faction will get three to four more berths in the next expansion of the cabinet.
He needs to keep his flock happy and together – hence the ministerial berths, positions in government undertakings and generous allocation of government funds for MLAs to work in the constituencies are important for him and his team. To ensure there is no unrest among the MLAs, he is now holding review meetings every Tuesday, where he tries to resolve all issues.
Many of Ajit’s 40-plus strong MLAs are from the traditional NCP-Congress supporting constituencies. It is still tough for him to explain to them why he split the party and joined a saffron alliance. It is for this reason that he has lately started reiterating how he follows an all-inclusive ideology irrespective of caste and creed.
He has already dialled down the praises for prime minister Narendra Modi on public platforms, and is skipping events linked to RSS, said NCP insiders.
He went a step further and advocated reservation for Muslims in government jobs and education—something which the BJP has publicly opposed. He told a minority community delegation that he would speak with Shinde and Fadnavis on the issue. “We have joined the state government for development and have not abandoned our ideology of Shahu, Phule, Ambedkar,” Ajit said while addressing a party gathering held at Garware Club House on September 27. The rebel party’s spokesperson Sanjay Tatkare reiterated this, adding, “We want to give a stable government which will work for the development of Maharashtra. So, the question of compromising our ideology does not arise.”
In Baramati, the fiefdom of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Ajit has managed to convince the electorate that he has emerged from his uncle’s shadow. In his assembly constituency, Ajit’s promise of development has had many takers.
“We understand Ajit dada’s compulsions and are solidly behind him. Baramati respects Sharad Pawar but politically, it is now with dada and we are sure he will become the CM one day,” said Ajit Deshmukh, a local resident.
Pune and north-west Maharashtra are crucial for his politics, perhaps it is for this reason he was adamant about the guardianship for Pune and other districts, and skipped the cabinet meeting before Shinde and Fadnavis headed to the capital.
A major political challenge for him is to snatch the family’s pocket borough and hand it over to BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls scheduled in April-May 2024. Insiders say, BJP is contemplating giving the Baramati LS seat to the Ajit Pawar camp.
Since his rebellion, the visit to Baramati by his elder son Parth and wife Sunetra have increased, prompting speculations whether one of them is planning to contest Lok Sabha polls against sitting MP and Ajit Pawar’s cousin Supriya Sule. This was also indicated by senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil in a meeting on Friday in Pune, when he said, “We have possibly the last and best opportunity to win the Baramati Lok Sabha seat. If we don’t win the seat this time, we will not get such an opportunity again.”
Apart from Baramati, there are several Lok Sabha seats, especially in western and north Maharashtra that are on BJP’s radar, and the party is hopeful that Ajit will help the wins. Political commentators are of the opinion that Ajit has taken a big risk and he has to prove his mettle by performing in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Being an unnatural ally of the BJP is a problem of the Ajit-led NCP,” said Mrudul Nile, professor of department of civics and politics, University of Mumbai. “It is between consent and legitimacy because both go hand in hand. The question is where will the people give the consent and legitimacy to -- Ajit or Sharad Pawar, which will legitimise their position.”
He added, Ajit will have to use all the resources available to him because at this point, he is at the stage of manufacturing the consent.
Political analyst Abhay Deshpande said that Ajit’s problems will increase if does not deliver to the BJP in the general elections. “The MVA coalition has sympathy and impact among people despite the splits in Shiv Sena and NCP. The BJP wants Ajit to minimise the dent in votes in the Lok Sabha elections for them. If he could do it then his chances for becoming CM becomes bright; if not, then he would be in bigger trouble than today,” he said.
The many twists and turns in Ajit Pawar’s career
November 10, 2010: Ajit Pawar became deputy chief minister for the first time after much muscle flexing and thwarting his uncle and NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s plan to give the position to the party’s heavyweight Chhagan Bhujbal.
September 25, 2012: He resigned from the position after allegations of his involvement in the ₹70,000 crore irrigation scam. All 19 NCP ministers also offered to quit the government. Ajit declared that he won’t take any ministerial position until his name was cleared from the allegations.
December, 2012: Three months later, the then Congress-NCP government presented a white paper on the water resources department and Ajit was given a “clean chit”. A week later, Ajit was sworn in as deputy chief minister for a second time.
November, 2019: When Sharad Pawar was busy in cobbling an unconventional coalition of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena, Ajit formed a government by holding an early morning oath-taking ceremony along with Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister. He became deputy CM for the third time but their government could not survive beyond three days as most of the rebel NCP MLAs returned to Pawar.
November, 2019: The MVA government was birthed with Uddhav Thackeray at the helm. Soon Ajit returned to the party and more than a month later joined the government as deputy CM for the fourth time on December 30, 2019.
June 30, 2022: When Uddhav Thackeray resigned as chief minister following a split in Shiv Sena, Ajit started eyeing the opposition leader’s position as the party had more MLAs than Congress. At the time Pawar was considering Jayant Patil’s name but Ajit gathered signatures of 38 MLAs supporting his candidature and again forced Pawar to take a decision in his favour. On July 4, 2022, Ajit was appointed as the leader of opposition in the state assembly.
June 21, 2023: Ten days after Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule was elevated as the new working president of NCP, Ajit expressed a desire to work for the party as the Maharashtra president. At the party’s conclave, he said he had no interest in carrying on as the opposition leader and wants to show the people how to run the party. The demand was downplayed by Pawar.
July 2, 2023: Ajit decided to walk on his own path to fulfil his ambition of becoming chief minister of Maharashtra. He forged an alliance with the coalition government led by Eknath Shinde’s faction of Shiv Sena and BJP and was inducted as deputy chief minister for the fifth time. This time he could gather the support of 40 of 53 NCP MLAs. Declaring himself as the new national president, he has also made a claim on the party and its election before the election commission.
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