Ajit Pawar hasn’t just grabbed the Dy CM chair, he has effectively snatched the Pawar empire from Supriya

The state of Maharashtra has witnessed a major political turnaround with the BJP managing to stun everyone as it has formed the government with Ajit Pawar who was sworn in as the Deputy CM and claims to have the support of 35 NCP MLAs. No one could have anticipated that the political crisis in Maharashtra would pan out like this. It won’t be wrong to say that Ajit Pawar is at the centre of this political twist which has caught all other political players, especially Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar by surprise.

Ajit Pawar who grew in his political career under the tutelage of his uncle Sharad Pawar has now managed to engineer a coup within the NCP led by Sharad Pawar himself. Ajit Pawar had entered politics through sugar cooperatives, a route familiar to the Pawar family. He got elected from the Baramati parliamentary constituency in the year 1991. Six months later, he resigned from the Lok Sabha seat when his uncle, Sharad Pawar was appointed as the Defence Minister in the Narasimha Rao government in 1991. Later, he contested and won from the Baramati Assembly seat and kept growing in the shadow of Sharad Pawar. When his uncle was the Congress Chief Minister, Junior Pawar served as minister of state in several departments.

After Sharad Pawar parted from the Congress and founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), his nephew, Ajit Pawar followed him. Eventually, a Congress-NCP coalition came to power in Maharashtra in the year 1999. Ajit Pawar became the youngest cabinet minister in the Vilasrao government and served as the Irrigation Minister for the next ten years. The Rs 70,000 crore Maharashtra irrigation scam took place during his term as the Irrigation Minister. Ajit Pawar again faced corruption allegations in the alleged Rs. 25,000-crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank Ltd. scam along with the NCP Founder-President, Sharad Pawar, following which Ajit Pawar had resigned from the Baramati assembly seat in September this year.

Ajit Pawar’s popularity grew further after the recent Maharashtra assembly polls as the NCP leader won for a sixth straight term with a humungous margin of 1.65 lakh votes. Ajit Pawar or “Dada” (elder brother), as he is known to his supporters, enjoys a huge fan following in Maharashtra with social media websites like Facebook consisting of Ajit Pawar ‘fan pages’. Even institutes and polytechnics are named after Ajit Dada Pawar in Ahmednagar and other towns. Even on his Twitter handle, he enjoys considerable popularity with 3.4 million followers.

Junior Pawar, who has grown into a political heavyweight in the state of Maharashtra, has now occupied the centre-stage after engineering what looks like a certain split within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Ajit Pawar claims to have the support of 35 MLAs in Maharashtra. With this, Ajit Pawar seems rather close to splitting the NCP in a perfect manner. The NCP currently has a total of 54 MLAs in Maharashtra. If Ajit Pawar is able to get 36 MLAs (including himself) to switch sides, then the anti-defection law would not apply upon the defecting MLAs as the said law does not apply when two-thirds or more of the total legislators of a political party switch sides and merge with another party. This would virtually mean a smooth process of government formation in the state of Maharashtra.

With this unexpected split in the NCP, and by rising to the post of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit, the most prominent in Pawar after the NCP founder has decided the future course of Pawar family in Maharashtra politics. According to Republic, a BJP lawmaker has even claimed that Ajit has the support of all 54 NCP MLAs. If this turns out to be true, it will only further corroborate Ajit’s position within the NCP and the Pawar family’s legacy in Maharashtra politics.

While Sharad Pawar remains in denial of the coup that has taken place within the NCP, his daughter has unequivocally expressed the reality of a split that has taken place both within the NCP and the Pawar family. With this, Ajit Pawar has strongly staked his claim to the legacy of Pawar family in Maharashtra politics. He is the only Pawar after Sharad Pawar who enjoys the kind of popularity that is required to keep NCP relevant in Maharashtra. Supriya Sule clearly does not have the political capital that Ajit has. With the latest turn of events, Ajit Pawar has shown both his capability emanating out of popularity and a sharp political presence of mind. Remaining in denial is not going to be of much use to Sharad Pawar, who must wake up to reality and allow his nephew’s ascension within NCP and Maharashtra politics.