The tragic flaw? Sharad Pawar side-lining Ajit in NCP led to nephew's second rebellion

Maharashtra Political crisis: Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, tragically passed away in a plane crash at Baramati, on Wednesday 28 January, 2026.

The NC leader had prompted yet another political party crisis in the state, only almost a year after Eknath Shinde rebelled against then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray sensationally leading to a governance change in Maharashtra.

Eknath Shinde's rebellion caused a split in the Shiv Sena. Similarly did Ajit Pawar's rebellion split Sharad Pawar helmed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) into two- NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), and NCP with Sharad Pawar as national president.

Ajit Pawar took charge as the deputy CM of Maharashtra for the fifth time in his political career. Notably, Ajit Pawar's rebellion on Sunday, came days after a verbal battle between Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra deputy CM and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis ended with the BJP warning the NCP to watch out for Fadnavis’ “bouncers”.

The Maharashtra Assembly Elections to the 288-member cabinet are due to be held in 2024.

Hints of unease within the NCP ranks rose when Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule joined politics in the 2009 parliamentary elections. Another irritant for the Ajit camp was the entry into politics of Pawar’s grandnephew Rohit Pawar. Rohit contested and won the last Assembly election.

Notably, Ajit had been elevated to the rank of Maharashtra cabinet minister in 1999, nine years after he served as a junior minister as an NCP member.

Uncle-nephew duo frictions not new

This is not the first time that Ajit Pawar has rebelled within the NCP ranks. An attempt in 2019 had fizzled out within days, however, nephew Ajit Pawar had always maintained a passion to carve his own political legacy, different from uncle Sharad Pawar's handcrafted political stint spanning almost half a century.

Ajit has left the NCP stunned in 2004, when he publicly differed with the party leadership’s decision to concede the chief ministership to the Congress.

In 2012, he suddenly resigned as Deputy CM over accusations of irregularities in irrigation projects during his tenure as the water resources minister, jeopardising the future of the Congress-led government as other NCP ministers threatened to follow suit. At the time, Pawar senior stepped in to save the government.

Weeks before the last Assembly elections, Ajit broke down in public over the Enforcement Directorate naming him and Pawar in a money-laundering case, claiming he was hurt. He subsequently resigned as MLA and went incommunicado. Pawar’s decision to step back from contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was said to have stemmed from Ajit’s insistence on fielding his son Parth from Maval. Parth’s loss is believed to have added to the bad blood in the family.

In 2019, Ajit Pawar had taken oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra while BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was the Chief Minister. That government lasted only 80 hours. Ajit again took over as the Deputy CM in the MahaVikasAgadi (MVA) government in November 2019. This government too faced the sharp end of the dagger when Eknath Shinde rebelled in 2022.

Ajit followed Sharad in rebelling against their mentors

The similitude between the Pawar patriarchs was contained to the fact they both attempted to hammer out individual political legacy by rebelling against their mentors.

Uncle Sharad Pawar rebelled by going against his mentor Vasantdada Patil to form his own government in 1978, and Ajit's second albeit ‘successful’ attempt could potentially foil his mentor's NCP's rise in Maharashtra and it's governance.

However, unlike the confident, much respected, people-friendly Sharad Pawar, his nephew is known for his brusque style of functioning, short temper and intolerance of dissent. Notably, it has long been his ambition to emerge from the NCP chief’s shadow.

Ajit Pawar, son of Sharad Pawar's elder brother Anantrao Pawar, had been by his uncle's side since 1991-’92. Political pundits have always flagged that nephew Pawar fancied himself as heir apparent after Sharad broke away from the Congress to form the NCP in 1999.

Ajit's mutiny was fuelled by NCP side-lining him?

Ajit Pawar, who nested dreams of taking over the NCP chief post, was side-lined over time. This came to the forefront when Sharad Pawar recently sprang his surprise resignation as NCP chief.

The decision announced in the first week of May had attempted to quell brewing contention within the NCP. However, Sharad Pawar retained his national president position and retracted his resignation. Further Supriya Sule was made the working president and thus handing out a fresh snub to Ajit.

Notably, Ajit was the only leader in May who suggested that Sharad Pawar's resignation should be accepted in order for newer leadership to take over.

In June, Ajit Pawar asked Sharad Pawar to relieve him of the post of leader of opposition in the assembly and to give him an organisational task instead. In the same speech, he launched an attack against the NCP's leadership over the party's failure to form a government on its own in Maharashtra, and said that NCP lagged behind.

According to a TOI report, Ajit had set 1 July as the deadline for his own appointment as state NCP president, and when Sharad Pawar failed to sack Jayant Patil, he implemented his plan drafted a month ago to join the Shinde-Fadnavis government.

Ajit walks out arm in arm with Sharad's comrades

This time Ajit walked out of the shadows of his uncle with president Sharad Pawar's long-time aides like Dilip Walse Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde and Hasan Mushrif in his kitty.

More so, Ajit also found a comrade in his mutiny in Praful Patel, the oldest aide of Sharad Pawar.