Ajit Pawar, The No-Nonsense 'Dada' Of Maharashtra Politics

Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar – one of the state's key power brokers, certainly after the July 2023 split from uncle Sharad Pawar's side – died Wednesday morning after his Learjet 45 crashed while trying to land at Baramati airport.

The aircraft carrying Pawar, 66, left Mumbai at 8.10 am and crashed at 8.46 am.

All five on board were killed in the crash, aviation regulator DGCA said.

Pawar leaves behind his wife Sunetra, a Rajya Sabha MP, and two sons, Parth and Jay.

It is perhaps fitting the end came in Baramati, for this now-prosperous sugarcane-producing belt was the proving ground that nurtured a political journey of over three decades.

Baramati was where a young Ajit Pawar, still in his uncle's far-reaching shadow, learned the game – that of politics and power – and was moulded into the hard-nosed politician who would later play a starring role in re-shaping, perhaps for all time, Maharashtra's political landscape.

And it was here, many years later, that Pawar's journey – and a political life punctuated by drama, family feuds and reconciliations, in the truest Bollywood-style – came to an end.

The 'rupture'

In early 2023 Maharashtra politics was already churning.

A year earlier Eknath Shinde did the unthinkable – he walked away from the Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray, then Chief Minister at the head of an alliance that included the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar, and which had been formed at the cost of a long-standing Sena-BJP partnership.

In July of that year it was deja vu time; Ajit Pawar handed Maharashtra voters and political observers that old familiar feeling. He too walked out of his party, breaking from his uncle's side to chase his own place in the political history of the state and, perhaps, a shot at national glory.

He led a clutch of NCP lawmakers out the front door and into an alliance with the BJP, and then returned for the name and symbol, which the Election Commission handed to him in February 2024.

That move split Sharad Pawar's party down the middle.

Pawar junior's rebellion – and reward, the Deputy Chief Minister's post, for a fifth time – made headlines. Pawar junior, those headlines screamed, had 'shocked' his uncle and party.

In truth, though, it was not a surprise.

It was, as were many moments in Pawar's life, deja vu, again.

The 2019 story

For, you see, four years earlier Ajit Pawar tried, and failed, to strike out on his own, stymied by Sharad Pawar's guile and the lack of his own political nous.

In November 2019, a month after election results were declared and the 'I want to be chief minister' stand-off between the Shiv Sena and BJP played out, Pawar quietly led a handful of NCP lawmakers to the Raj Bhavan and, in the dead of night (almost) offered the latter support.

And he was made the Deputy Chief Minister. But 80 hours later it all fell apart; Sharad Pawar pulled off an emotional masterstroke to pull the errant NCP leaders back in line and Ajit Pawar's support vanished. The BJP's government fell and the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance took over.

That, November 2019, was the first public crack in the NCP clan, a crack that widened over the years to include the nephew tossing ageist barbs at the uncle.

And the 'ghar wapsi(?)'

Fast-forward a few years now and we're in January 2026.

And Maharashtra politics is focused on the election to control the prestigious and very wealthy Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, and in that race (and that for 28 other city civic bodies).

Ajit Pawar has been sidelined, pushed to the side by a BJP that, as is now more often than not the case, is acutely aware of voter arithmetic and the most efficient route to victory.

And so Pawar's NCP faction has been cut loose, prompting a fuming nephew to reach out to his uncle and propose a family reunion. Much was made of the 'ghar wapsi', particularly as it involve defending Pawar political strongholds Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad against the BJP.

But, as it turned out, years of infighting and Pawar vs Pawar spats had turned even their most hardcore voters against them. The BJP romped to victory in both elections and Ajit Pawar, his dream of a grand win to re-assert his criticality to the BJP, returned quietly to the Mahayuti.

There was, then, to be no 'ghar wapsi'.

Pawar, the politician

A seasoned politician, Ajit Pawar never hid his ambition – he wanted to become Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Only, he never realised that dream, falling a step short an incredible six times.

It was, you see, the case of 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride' for a man who was Deputy Chief Minister six times. But that never took away from his professionalism and his commitment.

Recognised as a first-class organiser and administrator, tutored under the towering shadow of Sharad Pawar in the sugarcanes of Baramati and later in Maharashtra's political circles, Ajit Pawar was a workaholic and famed for his punctuality, unlike many of his colleagues.

Those who worked with him often spoke of Pawar beginning his day as early as 6 am and of his obsession with details; as Finance Minister, for example, he reportedly knew minute details of the government's accounts, including the costs of development and infrastructure projects.

Called 'dada', an affectionate term meaning 'older brother', by many, Pawar was also famed as a straight-shooter; he spoke his mind and did not mince words. Remember September 2025, when he sparked a row after snapping at a farmer grilling him over agricultural loan waivers.

But beneath that sometimes prickly exterior was a relentless individual.

A big defeat in the 2024 federal election – his NCP won just one seat – may have benched others but Pawar junior came out swinging, demolishing critics in the state election just months later.

Who was he then? Ajit Pawar was rarely the most charismatic face on the podium. But he was often the man counting numbers, moving pieces, and keeping the machinery running.