With the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar taking oath as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister on Sunday, the political landscape of the state has experienced a major shift. NCP leader took oath along with 9 other MLAs of the party assuming roles as ministers in Eknath Shinde-led NDA government in the state.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar, is the member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly representing Baramati Constituency. He served as the 29th leader of opposition in the Legislative Assembly and guardian minister for Pune district.

In his political career spanning several decades, Pawar has held various significant positions in the Maharashtra government such as Agriculture, Power, Soil Conservation, and Water Resources, serving under different governments.

Born in 1959 in Ahmednagar district, Ajit Pawar is the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. He made his foray into politics in 1982, when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991, Pawar was elected as the chairman of the Pune District Co-operative Bank (PDC) and served the post for 16 years.

While serving the position, he was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Baramati Parliamentary Constituency, where he later vacated his seat to make way for his uncle, Sharad Pawar. Later on, he was elected as a Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Baramati Assembly Constituency, securing multiple re-elections. He was re-elected from the same constituency in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014.

He served as the Minister of State for Agriculture and Power in Sudhakarrao Naik's government from June 1991 to November 1992. He became the Minister of State for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning in November 1992 and served till February 1993, when Sharad Pawar returned to the state as the Chief Minister.

Pawar was promoted to cabinet minister in the Irrigation Department in October 1999 and served the position till December 2003, when the Indian National Congress-NCP coalition came into power in 1999. From December 2003 to October 2004, he was given additional charge of the Rural Development Department. When Congress-NCP combination returned to power in 2004, he retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh's government and later in Ashok Chavan's government.

Notably, in a surprising turn of events in 2019, he took oath as Deputy Chief Minister with the support of the BJP, a move that lasted less than 80 hours, making him the Deputy CM with the shortest tenure in Devendra Fadnavis led government.

However, on December 1 of the same year, Pawar was announced as the Deputy Chief Minister of the Maha Vikas Aghadi administration.

With the recent development, the state will have two deputy chief ministers — Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. The move comes just days after Pawar had publically expressed his desire to step down as Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly. As the sources told PTI, Ajit has the backing of 40 NCP MLAs and 6 NCP MLCs.

Other NCP leaders who took oath were Dilip Walse Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Hassan Mushrif, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Aditi Sunil Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode, Anil Patil and Dhananjay Munde.