Meet Ajit Pawar - The man who helped BJP turn the tide

Meet Ajit Pawar, who helped BJP turn the tide

Ajit Pawar is the most talked-about man in Maharashtra politics today. 49-year-old Devendra Fadnavis took over the reins of Maharashtra as he took oath as Chief Minister in an unexpected turn of events on Saturday morning, courtesy -- Ajit Pawar, who also managed to get a deputy Chief Minister post in his kitty. Probably that was the deal or maybe more.

Meet Ajit Pawar - The man who helped BJP turn the tide

Ajit Pawar is the son of Anantrao Pawar, who had initially worked for renowned filmmaker V Shantaram. Ajit is also the nephew of NCP Chief Sharad Pawar.
Ajit Pawar was pursuing his primary education in Deolali Pravara when uncle Sharad Pawar rose to become a political figure in Congress.
Ajit Pawar later moved to Bombay for his further education.
It was in 1982 that Ajit Pawar made his foray into politics when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory.
In 1991, Ajit Pawar was elected chairman of the Pune District Co-operative Bank (PDC). He retained the post for 16 years. During the course, he was elected as Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha from Baramati.
Ajit Pawar, later, vacated his Lok Sabha seat in favour of his uncle Sharad Pawar, who had then become defence minister in PV Narasimha Rao's government. He was thereafter elected a member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Baramati.
Ajit Pawar was re-elected from Baramati in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.
From June 1991-November 1992, Ajit Pawar was the minister of state for Agriculture and Power in Sudhakarrao Naik's government.
When Sharad Pawar returned to the state as Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar served as the minister of state for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning from November 1992-February 1993.
Ajit Pawar was promoted to cabinet minister in 1999 when the Congress-NCP coalition came into power. First, in the Irrigation Department (October 1999-December 2003) in Vilasrao Deshmukh government. Later from December 2003 to October 2004, he was given additional charge of the Rural Development Department in Sushilkumar Shinde's government.
In 2004 when Congress-NCP combine returned to power, Ajit Pawar retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh government and later in Ashok Chavan's government.
He also became the Guardian minister for Pune district in 2004 and held the post until the Congress - NCP coalition lost power in 2014.
It is alleged that Ajit Pawar, during his tenure as minister for water resources, spared no efforts to help in the development of Lavasa, a projected touted as a "vision of Sharad Pawar".
In September 2012, there were accusations that there had been a misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs 70,000 crores.