Ajit Pawar has done it again. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and nephew of Sharad Pawar made big headlines on Sunday when he took oath as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and joined the Eknath Shinde-led government.

Along with Ajit Pawar, eight leaders from the NCP also took oath as ministers, engineering a vertical split in the party. Those who were sworn in as ministers are Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmarao Atram, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode.

Following his surprise swearing-in, Ajit Pawar wrote on Twitter, “With the will of the people of Maharashtra, the support of his colleagues in the Nationalist Congress Party, and the strength of faith, he took the oath of office and secrecy as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state today. I believe that my post will be used for the welfare of the people, for the development of Maharashtra.”

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who was present in the Raj Bhawan, said Ajit Pawar has resigned as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lower House and he has accepted it.

This isn’t the first time he has done something like this. After the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls, he had joined hands with the BJP and was sworn in as deputy CM in a hush ceremony, but their government lasted only 80 hours.

The rise of Ajit Pawar

According to Indian Express, Ajit, the son of Pawar’s elder brother Anantrao, began being seen beside his uncle around 1991 and 1992.

He first gained fame after Pawar formed the NCP and even became a Cabinet minister in the Congress-NCP government. Ajit then headed up a slew of ministries including irrigation, rural development, water resources and finance.

Ajit gained the reputation for getting things done and brought in fresh blood into the NCP – all of whom were loyal to him.

Turmoil within NCP

The first hint of turmoil came in 2004 when Ajit publicly spoke against the NCP, which had emerged as the single-largest party in Maharashtra, giving the chief ministership to the Congress.

According to News18, Ajit missed his chance to become chief minister after Pawar demanded more Cabinet berths instead of the CM’s post.

Ajit was then made deputy chief minister.

The political plunge by Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule in 2009 brought murmurs of tensions within the NCP. Talk of tensions flared up again in 2019 when Pawar’s grandnephew Rohit decided to dip his toes in the political waters.

According to Times Now, this came at the same time that Ajit wanted his son Parth to contest Lok Sabha polls from Maval.

While Pawar was initially not in favour of this, the party ended up giving Parth a ticket – only for him to lose by a massive two lakh votes.

That caused further stress between Pawar and Ajit – the uncle was disappointed at the party loss, while the nephew was upset at his son not being fully backed by the party.

In September 2019, Ajit resigned as a party legislator from Baramati.

Then, in November 2019, came a truly stunning event – Ajit’s swearing in as deputy chief minister in the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet.

That government collapsed quickly and Ajit quickly returned to the NCP fold – events neither man has publicly addressed.

Bigger ambitions

In April, Ajit in an interview expressed his desire to become Maharashtra chief minister, as per Hindustan Times.

That led to party leaders Sunil Tatkare and Dilip Walse Patil echoing Ajit and workers putting up hoardings proclaiming that Ajit would be a future chief minister.

A senior NCP leader told the newspaper Ajit was sending a message – that he was the party leader at the state level.

Sule, meanwhile, told ANI, “There is nothing wrong to have ambition or a dream in politics, everybody has it, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with saying openly about it. In fact, he is very honest in talking about his ambition.”

This even as rumours swirled that Ajit was preparing to decamp to the BJP with 40 MLAs and that he was in constant touch with Fadnavis and Amit Shah, as per Deccan Herald.

Ajit at first said nothing and then emphatically denied it. Pawar, meanwhile, held a meeting with Uddhav Thackeray.

Deccan Herald quoted insiders as saying Pawar is predisposed towards appointing his daughter as his heir, but is wary of Ajit’s influence within the party.

In fact, the development comes after Ajit Pawar had earlier this month said he wanted to step down as the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly as he was “never interested” in the role.

Speaking at the 24th Foundation Day of the NCP, Ajit had then said: “I am told that I don’t act tough as the leader of the Opposition… I was never interested to work as Leader of Opposition but accepted the role on demand of the party MLAs.”

“Assign me any post in the party organisation, and I will do complete justice to whatever responsibility I am entrusted with,” he added.

His remarks had come after NCP supremo Sharad Pawar appointed Supriya Sule and Praful Patel as the working presidents of the party.

Moreover, Ajit has had to deal with another complication – that of Sule and NCP Maharashtra president Jayant Patil emerging as rival power centres within the NCP.

It is unknown how the NCP or Ajit Pawar’s uncle will react to the developments on Sunday, but it’s politics and, as they say, everything and anything is possible.

With inputs from agencies

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