Ajit Pawar

Ajit Anantrao Pawar was born on 22 July 1959 in Deolali Pravara, in Ahmednagar district of what was then Bombay State, at his grandparents' place. He was the son of Anantrao Pawar and Ashatai Pawar. Anantrao, the elder brother of future Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, worked at V. Shantaram's celebrated Rajkamal Studios in Bombay.

The Pawars were a political family long before Ajit entered public life. His grandparents were Govindrao and Shardabai Pawar; Shardabai was active in the Peasants and Workers Party and in 1938 was elected unopposed to the Pune Local Board. Govindrao and Shardabai had eleven children, among them Sharad Pawar. The family's roots lay in the Baramati area, and Ajit's native village was Katewadi near Baramati, from where his body was carried to his funeral in 2026.

As a boy he grew up around the politics of the Samyukta Maharashtra era and the rural economy of western Maharashtra, with its sugar cooperatives and chronic water shortages, themes that would dominate his career.

Pawar studied in Deolali Pravara and completed his formal education at the level of the Maharashtra State Board Secondary School Certificate (SSC). He enrolled in college, but the untimely death of his father forced him to drop out and take responsibility for his family. He never completed a degree, and his administrative knowledge, which colleagues and opponents alike regarded as formidable, was learned on the job in cooperative institutions and government departments.

Cooperatives. Following his uncle's path, Pawar made his first move into public life in 1982 when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991 he became chairman of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank, a post he held for the next 16 years.

Parliament and Baramati. In 1991 he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Baramati, but vacated the seat so that Sharad Pawar could return to Parliament as Defence Minister in P. V. Narasimha Rao's government. He then won the Baramati Assembly seat in a 1991 by-election by 86,915 votes and joined Sudhakarrao Naik's cabinet in June 1991 as its youngest member, Minister of State for Agriculture and Power. When Sharad Pawar returned as Chief Minister in 1992 he served as Minister of State for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning. He went on to win Baramati in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024, eight victories in all.

NCP minister. In 1999 he followed Sharad Pawar out of the Congress into the newly founded Nationalist Congress Party, and helped hold its legislators together as it formed a coalition with the Congress. Under Vilasrao Deshmukh he became Cabinet Minister for Irrigation; Rural Development was added in 2003 under Sushilkumar Shinde, and he kept Water Resources under Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan after 2004. He was also guardian minister of Pune.

Deputy Chief Minister. In November 2010 he was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister in Prithviraj Chavan's government, later also taking finance and planning. He resigned in September 2012 amid the irrigation allegations and was reinstated on 7 December 2012, serving until 2014. After five years in opposition, he was briefly Deputy Chief Minister with Devendra Fadnavis in November 2019, then held the office again with finance and planning in Uddhav Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government from 30 December 2019 to June 2022. He was Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly from July 2022 to July 2023, and Leader of the House in the Legislative Council from 2020 to 2022.

NCP split and Mahayuti. On 2 July 2023 he split the NCP, took most of its legislators into the ruling Mahayuti alliance and was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister under Eknath Shinde, with the finance portfolio. On 7 February 2024 the Election Commission of India awarded the NCP name and clock symbol to his faction. After the Mahayuti's landslide in the November 2024 Assembly election, in which his NCP won 29 of the 36 seats where the two NCP factions clashed, he was sworn in for a sixth time on 5 December 2024 at Azad Maidan in Mumbai, holding finance, planning and state excise until his death.

In 1985 Pawar married Sunetra Patil, sister of senior NCP leader Padamsinh Bajirao Patil. Sunetra Pawar later became a Rajya Sabha member and, after his death, Maharashtra's first woman Deputy Chief Minister. The couple had two sons, Parth and Jay.

His politics were a family matter in every sense. His uncle Sharad Pawar was his mentor and, from 2023, his rival; his cousin Supriya Sule, Sharad Pawar's daughter, defeated Sunetra in the 2024 Baramati Lok Sabha contest; and in the 2024 Assembly election he beat his brother's son, Yugendra Pawar. He said his mother had urged Sharad Pawar not to allow a contest within the family.

Pawar was famous for his work habits. Journalists recalled that he was invariably at his desk by 6 a.m., that visitors queued at his residence from 8 a.m., and that he moved through the State Secretariat at speed, taking petitions in one hand and passing them to staff with the other. He was known for sharp words, including repeatedly rebuking his colleague R. R. Patil for chewing tobacco, and for jokes that echoed through the Assembly corridors. To supporters he was simply 'Dada', elder brother.

Pawar described his politics in terms of Maharashtra's reformist tradition of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and B. R. Ambedkar. During the 2024 campaign he backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'ek hai to safe hai' message of unity but publicly rejected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's 'batenge to katenge' slogan as alien to Maharashtra, and in his last years he distanced himself from communal statements by some allies.

As finance minister he was known for fiscal caution. Asked how the state could raise Ladki Bahin payments from 1,500 to 2,100 rupees a month, he conceded that it would need help from the Centre. He spoke often of farmers, cooperatives, rural development and Baramati's growth, which he regarded as his own work. He also openly admitted his ambition to become Chief Minister, while noting that it depended on reaching a majority.

Irrigation allegations. As irrigation and water resources minister from 1999, Pawar oversaw projects worth more than 70,000 crore rupees, many in drought-prone Vidarbha. In 2012 the state's Economic Survey and whistle-blower engineer Vijay Pandhare raised questions about inflated cost estimates and irregular contracts, and Pawar resigned as Deputy Chief Minister in September 2012. A government white paper cleared him and he returned to office in December 2012. A Comptroller and Auditor General report later found cost overruns of about 27,000 crore rupees across 242 projects. In 2018 the Anti-Corruption Bureau told the Bombay High Court that he had intervened in contract awards, but in 2019 it closed several inquiries and said his actions were not malicious. He was not named in any FIR in the case.

Drought remark. In April 2013, during a severe drought, he mocked drought-affected people with a crude remark about urinating into empty dams. He apologised in both Houses of the legislature and to the public, calling it one of the biggest mistakes of his political life, and on 14 April 2013 kept a day-long 'atmaklesh' (penance) fast at Yashwantrao Chavan's samadhi in Karad. Opposition parties called the fast a stunt and demanded his resignation.

Switches of allegiance. His overnight alliance with the BJP in November 2019 and his 2023 split of the NCP led critics to accuse him of betrayal, while supporters saw pragmatic leadership.

Pawar was Maharashtra's longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister, holding the post six times under four Chief Ministers (Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde) for more than eight years in total. He represented Baramati for 35 years and was one of the most influential politicians in India's richest state, often called its 'forever Chief Minister in waiting'.

He shaped the state's finances through many budgets, launched the Majhi Ladki Bahin scheme that helped return the Mahayuti to power in 2024, and built a political machine of his own that won the NCP name and symbol. His sudden death left a leadership vacuum in his party and in the governing alliance; his wife Sunetra succeeded him as Deputy Chief Minister three days later. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him a leader of the people with a strong grassroots connect, and the President of India recalled his contribution to Maharashtra's development, especially in the cooperative sector.

No national civilian award to Pawar has been reported. His recognitions were electoral and institutional: eight wins in Baramati, six terms as Deputy Chief Minister, a record tenure in that office, and recognition of his faction as the official NCP by the Election Commission of India in 2024. On his death the Government of Maharashtra declared three days of state mourning with flags at half mast and schools and offices closed, and he was cremated with full state honours in Baramati on 29 January 2026.

Pawar gave frequent interviews in Marathi, Hindi and English, including a well-known India Today conversation with Rajdeep Sardesai and Sahil Joshi after the 2023 NCP split, a BBC News Marathi interview and a 2024 election interview with The Hindu. His habit of opening answers with 'Kasa ahe' ('Here is how it is') became a familiar catchphrase to Maharashtra reporters. After his death, channels including ABP Majha ('Aapla Dada'), Brut India and The Free Press Journal broadcast documentaries and profiles of his life, and his funeral was carried live nationally. His official accounts on X (@AjitPawarSpeaks), Instagram and Facebook had large followings; his last X post, on 27 January 2026, listed the state cabinet's decisions that day.

On the morning of Wednesday 28 January 2026, Pawar flew from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai to Baramati to address public meetings for the upcoming zilla parishad elections. The aircraft, a 16-year-old Learjet 45XR registered VT-SSK and operated by VSR Ventures, was told visibility at the uncontrolled Baramati airfield was about 3,000 metres. The crew went around on the first approach to runway 11 because the runway was not in sight, reported it in sight on the second approach and were cleared to land at 08:43 IST. At about 08:44 IST the aircraft crashed beside the runway threshold and caught fire. All five people on board died: Pawar, his personal security officer Vidip Jadhav, flight attendant Pinky Mali, pilot Captain Sumit Kapoor and co-pilot Captain Shambhavi Pathak. He was 66.

Maharashtra declared three days of state mourning. Tributes came from across the political spectrum, including President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Rahul Gandhi, Amit Shah, Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray. On 29 January his body, draped in the national flag, was taken from Katewadi to the Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati, where he was cremated with full state honours. His sons Parth and Jay lit the pyre, with his wife Sunetra, Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Fadnavis and Shinde among the mourners as thousands chanted 'Ajit Dada amar rahe'.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's preliminary report, released on 28 February 2026, pointed to the flight continuing despite visibility below the 5,000-metre visual minimum and to poor airfield infrastructure, including faded runway markings and no landing aids. The DGCA grounded four of the operator's Learjets on 25 February 2026.