Ajit Pawar Created His Niche, Moved Out Of Shadows Of Sharad Pawar To Join Hands With BJP

Following the split, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy chief minister. While his faction favoured alignment with the ruling coalition, Sharad Pawar chose to remain in opposition.

In 2023, Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), breaking away from his uncle Sharad Pawar and joining the BJP–Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) alliance. Ajit Pawar had publicly questioned Sharad Pawar’s continued leadership of the party, citing the need for generational change.

Following the split, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy chief minister. While his faction favoured alignment with the ruling coalition, Sharad Pawar chose to remain in opposition.

The Election Commission later recognised Ajit Pawar’s group as the official NCP, allowing it to retain the ‘clock’ symbol. Sharad Pawar’s faction adopted the ‘tutari’ (curved trumpet) as its election symbol.

Electoral Fallout And Shifting Equations

The two factions fought elections separately. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Ajit Pawar’s camp faced setbacks, prompting him to later admit that distancing himself from family had been a “mistake.”

However, the subsequent Maharashtra Assembly elections painted a different picture. Ajit Pawar’s NCP secured 41 MLAs, outperforming the Sharad Pawar faction in 27 direct contests, while the latter won seven.

Overall, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance swept the elections with 235 seats — 132 for the BJP, 57 for the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), and 41 for Ajit Pawar’s NCP. The MVA was reduced to 46 seats, with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP winning just 10.

Pawars Patch-Up For Civic Polls

The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party announced an electoral understanding with the NCP faction headed by Sharad Pawar for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) elections held on January 14. The alliance also extended to Pune’s civic contests, marking a rare convergence between the two factions after a bitter split nearly two years ago.

Ajit Pawar, while announcing the tie-up, stressed that the arrangement is limited to local body polls and should not be read as a broader political realignment.

“For the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation elections, the ‘clock’ and the ‘tutari’ have come together. The family has reunited for this fight,” Ajit Pawar had said, referring to the election symbols of the two factions.

Calling it a development-focused alliance, he added that the objective was to defeat those who, according to him, had pushed the civic body into financial trouble.