Ajit Pawar, a man who has always kept his word

“Kasa ahe, Vinaya tai!” is how Ajit Pawar would start talking when asked any question. The literal translation is, “I will tell you how it is, Vinaya tai!” ‘Tai’, meaning sister, is a commonly used term of endearment and respect in Maharashtra. So is ‘Dada’, meaning elder brother. That is how people addressed him, how he referred to himself, and how he carried himself.

This was his typical way of starting his answers, even as he would try to be cautious in the beginning while speaking to the national media. Soon after, true to his nature, he would throw caution to the winds and speak.

I remember asking him about the fiscal prudence of the Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana after it was rolled out, providing ₹1,500 to eligible women in the State. It was also a time when the State elections were coming up, and the Mahayuti had promised that the amount would be increased to ₹2,100 if voted back to power. I asked him, “How is that even possible? How will you manage the State’s finances?”

While other leaders bypassed any serious discussion, emphasising that the promise would be fulfilled once the alliance returned to power, that was not how Pawar responded. He did not want to say it was impossible — that would have contradicted the alliance line — but he also did not want to say it was possible. He expressed concern about the burden it would place on the treasury. “Kasa ahe, Vinaya tai, we will have to take the Centre’s help if anything else has to be done. If they chip in, we can do something,” he said, making it clear that any allocation beyond ₹1,500 was not possible on the State’s own strength.

In Pictures | Ajit Pawar’s political journey

Ajit Pawar became the youngest member of the Sudhakarrao Naik Cabinet after winning a record margin of votes from Baramati. He was sworn in by the Maharashtra Governor C. Subramaniam at Raj Bhavan in June 1991.

Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister in Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s (right) cabinet in November 2010 for the first time.

Ajit Pawar seen with fellow NCP leader and his cousin Supriya Sule during Rashtrawadi Yuvati Melava in Satara, Maharashtra, in 2012.

Ajit Pawar (second from right) announced his resignation as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in Mumbai in 2012, following allegations of misappropriation of funds. He was reinstated eventually.

In this April 14, 2013, photograph, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar sits in penance, a day-long fast [Atma klesh] after using unfair language towards drought-stricken people, near Y B Chavan’s samadhi in Karad, Maharashtra.

Praful Patel offers a bouquet to Ajit Pawar, who was elected as NCP Legislative Assembly leader in October 2019.

Ajit Pawar at a rally after filing nomination at Baramati in 2019. He has been representing the Assembly constituency for a record eight times since 1991.

On November 23, 2019, when NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress were trying to stitch together an alliance, Ajit Pawar, along with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis (left) were sworn in as Deputy CM and Chief Minister by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

Ajit Pawar briefly supported the BJP in 2019, but the government collapsed without adequate legislators to support. He later joined the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance with Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP in 2019.

Former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray with MVA leaders Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat, and Ajit Pawar being garlanded during MVA’s ‘Vajramuth’ public rally in Nagpur, in April 2023. Pawar was Deputy CM under Uddhav Thackeray for over two years.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar speaks as supporters plead for Sharad Pawar to take back his decision to step down as president during a book launch in South Mumbai in May 2023.

Ajit Pawar inaugurates the new NCP office near Mantralaya in Mumbai in July 2023.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, on July 18, 2023.

In 2023, Ajit Pawar initiated a split within the NCP, aligning with the BJP-Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena coalition. During this period, Eknath Shinde served as Maharashtra Chief Minister, with Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar as State Deputy Chief Ministers from 2023 to 2024.

Mahayuti Leaders Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis, and Ajit Pawar celebrate during the press conference after Maharashtra Assembly election results held at the CM’s official residence in Mumbai in November 2024. The alliance won 233 out of 288 Assembly seats, marking an unprecedented electoral sweep in Maharashtra not seen since the 1980s.

Ajit Pawar takes oath as Deputy CM for sixth time during the swearing-in ceremony held at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on December 5, 2024.

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Pawar was known for speaking sharply, and for some, this was terrifying. Sometimes, it reflected his concern for their well-being. When former Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil chewed tobacco, Pawar would rebuke him repeatedly.

My last interaction with Pawar was a day before his sudden demise. He walked out of his chamber in the State Secretariat after a Cabinet meeting, and I was standing right there. A day later in Baramati, his OSD (Officer on Special Duty) told me, amid the shock over the event that had happened, “He later asked about you”. An interview for the local body elections was pending.

What stood out for me was his sense of discipline and dedication to public life like his uncle Sharad Pawar. Once, last year, he promised me an interview. As I was about to start rolling the camera, his team requested some time, saying he had not had lunch for hours. I agreed and told them I would wait. Pawar said he would return in 10 minutes. 

He kept his promise. He came, sat next to me, and said, “Ask whatever you want”. I smiled as his team requested me to wind up at the earliest, as he had already been delayed for his next commitment. And yet, he indulged me for much longer than the given slot, answering all my questions, including the difficult ones, with all earnestness. To me, this was a man who appreciated the fact that I had waited for him and made up for it.

Ground Report: How did Ajit Pawar’s tragic plane crash at Baramati unfold?

As journalists, we are used to walking into people’s bungalows or offices at any hour. I had seen visitors queue up at his residence as early as 8 a.m. For someone who was invariably in his chair by 6 a.m., politics was less a vocation and more a relentless preoccupation. He would move through the State Secretariat with purposeful strides, rushing from one meeting to the next as his staff would brief him on the move. Taking representations in one hand, he would pass them over to designated staffers. Pawar was a leader who believed in multitasking.

A look at Ajit Pawar’s life in Maharashtra politics

The corridors of the State Assembly will no longer echo with his jokes, nor will the Secretariat see an administrator who routinely took officers to task.