The air crash that killed Ajit Pawar robbed Maharashtra of a leader who could have been an excellent chief minister, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stressed in the state assembly on Monday.
"Ajit Pawar was the best Chief Minister Maharashtra never had. For the first time, a leader known for his punctuality missed his timing," rued Devendra Fadnavis.
"He always remained the Deputy Chief Minister, but today I would say he would have made an excellent Chief Minister. Ajit Dada was a leader of immense capability. In Maharashtra, both Vasant Dada and Ajit Dada will always be remembered as leaders who truly worked for the people," Fadnavis said.
At the Mantralaya, the Chief Minister said, Ajit Pawar would arrive before everyone else. "He would get straight to work. No file would ever remain pending because of him," Fadnavis said.
"He had certain habits, and punctuality was the most important among them. Dada would always arrive before time, I would reach five minutes later, and Eknath Shinde sometimes a little late," he said.
Uddhav Thackeray, under whom Ajit Pawar worked as a Deputy, also stressed that punctuality was the late leader's "hallmark".
"A clock and punctuality were truly his hallmark. He would bring up issues himself, and once the work was completed, he would immediately move on," Thackeray said.
Ajit Pawar served as Deputy Chief Minister under four Chief Ministers: Prithviraj Chavan, Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis. In all, he served a record six terms as Deputy Chief Minister.
In 2023, the 66-year-old led the mutiny in NCP that split the party into two factions: one led by him and the other by his uncle Sharad Pawar.
The rebel NCP leader died last month when a chartered aircraft carrying him crashed while attempting to land at Baramati airport. All five people on board, including his personal security officer, a flight attendant, and two pilots, were killed in the accident.
"The day before the plane crash, Ajit Dada and I were talking for about 45 minutes on the day of the Cabinet meeting. When the news of the crash came, I initially thought it must be a minor accident, but later everything turned out to be very different. I never imagined that the meeting with Ajit Dada on the day of the Cabinet would be our last," Fadnavis recounted.
The Chief Minister underlined that Ajit Pawar was the "kind of leader who would publicly apologise if even a single mistake was made".
He recounted his former Deputy's love for milk.
"Ajit Dada was fond of drinking milk. During our travels, we would always have milk," he shared.
If not a politician, Ajit Pawar would have been an "excellent civil engineer", Fadnavis said, underlining how his former Deputy was so focused on the quality of government construction.
"If Ajit Dada had not become a political leader, he would certainly have become an excellent civil engineer. He always insisted that the quality of government construction be of the highest standard and would conduct inspections early in the morning," Fadnavis recalled.
"It is truly unfortunate that the Baramati Medical Hospital, for which Ajit Dada was constantly involved and committed, was the very place where his mortal remains were taken for the last time," he said.
The son of Sharad Pawar's brother Anantrao and Ashatai, Ajit Pawar started his political career, like his uncle, with an election to the board of a cooperative sugar factory.
In 1991, he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Baramati. His Lok Sabha stint was short as he vacated the seat soon after for his uncle, who became the Defence Minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government.
Thereafter, Ajit Pawar was elected to the Baramati Assembly seat in 1991. Baramati did not have another MLA in the past 35 years.
"Ajit Dada will always remain the undefeated leader of Baramati. Sharad Pawar had himself praised Ajit Pawar in his book 'Lok Maze Sangati'," Fadnavis said.
