Ajit Anantrao Pawar is an Indian politician from Maharashtra who has served multiple terms as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. A long-serving Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Baramati constituency in Pune district, he has been a central figure in the politics of western Maharashtra for over three decades. He is the nephew of veteran politician Sharad Pawar, the founder of the Nationalist Congress Party.
| Full name | Ajit Anantrao Pawar |
|---|---|
| Constituency | Baramati (Maharashtra Legislative Assembly) |
| Office | Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra (multiple terms) |
| Party | Nationalist Congress Party (and its later faction led by him) |
| Region | Western Maharashtra, Pune district |
| Family | Nephew of Sharad Pawar |
Ajit Pawar belongs to the influential Pawar family of Baramati in Pune district, a region long associated with cooperative sugar, dairy and irrigation politics in Maharashtra. He entered public life through cooperative institutions in the Baramati area before moving into electoral politics, building a base in the agrarian constituencies of western Maharashtra.
Ajit Pawar has been elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Baramati across several consecutive terms, making it one of the safest seats associated with his family. Earlier in his career he also served briefly as a Member of Parliament from the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency before the seat passed to other members of the family.
He has held several major portfolios in the Government of Maharashtra, including Finance and Planning, Water Resources, and Energy. His tenure in the Water Resources department covered a period of significant expansion of the state's irrigation projects, particularly in the Krishna and Godavari basins.
Ajit Pawar has been sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on multiple occasions under different coalition arrangements:
In 2023, Ajit Pawar led a major faction of the Nationalist Congress Party into the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, taking oath as Deputy Chief Minister along with several MLAs supporting him. This led to a prolonged dispute over the party's name and election symbol, with rival claims being made by the group led by Sharad Pawar. The Election Commission of India subsequently recognised the faction led by Ajit Pawar as the Nationalist Congress Party for electoral purposes, while the other group was assigned a separate identity.
Ajit Pawar is regarded as one of the most influential organisational politicians in Maharashtra, with deep roots in the cooperative sugar sector, sugar factories, district cooperative banks and educational institutions of western Maharashtra. As Finance Minister he has presented multiple state budgets, and his role in irrigation policy and rural infrastructure has made him a key figure in the state's development debates. The 2023 split in the NCP under his leadership is considered one of the most significant realignments in recent Maharashtra politics, alongside the earlier division of the Shiv Sena.