Ajit Pawar projects himself as the new leader of Maharashtra

Rebel faction leader Ajit Pawar is set to project himself as the new leader of Maharashtra as his followers celebrate his birthday with a ten-day drive. The celebration includes distributing books, water filters, and cycles to school students, as well as holding job fairs and health camps. This comes after the recent split of the Nationalist Congress Party, with Ajit declaring himself the national president of the party and making a claim on its name and election symbol. The celebration is seen as a political move to build Ajit's image.

After splitting the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, rebel faction leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar is all set to project himself as the new leader of Maharashtra. Ajit’s followers have decided to celebrate his birthday by holding a ten-day drive from July 22 in his name. Among other activities, the faction will distribute books, water filters and cycles to school students; it will also hold job fairs, health camps and skill development camps for women.

Mumbai, India - July 18, 2023: MLAs of Ajit Pawar faction of NCP step in on the Second day of the monsoon session at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

This is the first time that Ajit Pawar, who turns 64 on Saturday, will be celebrating his birthday on such a grand scale. It is significant, given the backdrop of the recent NCP split—after the latter, Ajit declared himself the national president of the party and has made a claim on its name and election symbol before the Election Commission of India (ECI). The extravagance is clearly political image-building in the same vein.

“We have decided to celebrate Ajit Dada’s birthday as ‘Ajit Utsav’ between July 22 and 31 across Maharashtra,” announced Sunil Tatkare, Maharashtra president of the Ajit-led faction on Tuesday. “The NCP is aware that farmers are in distress and thus we have decided to limit our celebrations to social work only.”

The programmes to be undertaken to celebrate Ajit’s birthday comprise blood donation camps, tree plantation, distributing cycles to girl students, distribution of books and water filters in schools, honouring retired defence personnel, cleanliness drives in villages, medical camps followed by free medical treatment, job fairs, and training and guidance of women in skill development and existing government schemes.

The announcement has come a day after the Ajit-led faction met Sharad Pawar thrice in four days and tried to convince him to change his stand so as “to keep the NCP united”. On Friday evening, Ajit dropped by Pawar’s residence Silver Oak to meet his aunt Pratibha who was recovering from a surgery. Ajit spent half an hour at the house, in which time he also met his uncle. The second meeting was on Sunday at Pawar’s office, where Ajit, along with eight elected ministers, met Pawar and requested him to project a “united front”.

Meanwhile, the senior Pawar attended the opposition meeting in Bengaluru while Ajit and Praful Patel attended the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting in Delhi called by prime minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. It was Ajit’s first meeting with the prime minister after splitting the NCP.

Tatkare claimed that there was no confusion among workers and the people regarding the two NCPs. “Our faction will contest all the upcoming elections in the three-party coalition,” he said. “There is no confusion. It was a political decision and the reason is before the people.”