2019 redux- Ajit Pawar back as Maharashtra's Deputy CM for 3rd time in 4 years

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Ajit Pawar is back to the post by splitting the party, in a stunning turn of events in the state politics. Pawar, who was also the deputy CM in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which was in power from November 2019 to June 2022, enjoys the image of a grassroot leader and an able administrator.

The 63-year-old leader, who is known to be politically ambitious and speak his mind, took oath as the deputy CM of Maharashtra on Sunday for the third time since 2019, capping months of intense speculation about his next political move. Ajit Pawar, who is the son of NCP chief Sharad Pawar's elder brother late Anant Pawar, recently appealed to the party leadership to relieve him of the responsibility of leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly and assign him a role in the party organisation.

In the 2019 assembly elections, Ajit Pawar was re-elected from Baramati Assembly constituency with the highest margin of more than 1.65 lakh votes in the state. In November 2019, Ajit Pawar were sworn in as the deputy CM for the shortest term as the government led by BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, which took oath in a hush-hush ceremony in the Raj Bhawan, lasted just 80 hours.

He again became the deputy chief minister in the MVA government led by Thackeray and remained in the position for two-and- half years, till the alliance government collapsed in June last year. Earlier, Ajit Pawar also served as deputy CM during the 15-year tenure of Congress-NCP government under Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan.

Apart from handling finance portfolio in the Congress-NCP and MVA governments, Ajit Pawar has also handled water resources and power departments. Ajit Pawar made his foray into politics in 1982 as member