Mumbai, Jan 28: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Wednesday said that in the death of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the state has lost an outstanding leader with a precise grip on the administration, and someone who was remarkably straightforward and free of caste bias.
Pawar (66) and four other persons were killed after an aircraft carrying them crashed near Baramati in Pune district of Maharashtra on Wednesday morning. He was traveling to his hometown Baramati from Mumbai to address public meetings.
In a post on X, Thackeray said, “My friend and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has passed away. Maharashtra’s politics has lost an outstanding leader.”
He said Pawar and he entered politics around the same time.
But on the strength of his sheer passion for politics, Pawar took great strides in Maharashtra’s political arena, he said.
“Though Ajit Pawar was a leader forged in the mold of (Sharad) Pawar saheb, he later carved out his own independent identity. And he imprinted that identity in every nook and corner of Maharashtra,” the MNS president said.
In the 1990s, urbanisation gained momentum in Maharashtra. Rural areas began tilting toward semi-urbanisation, yet the tone of politics there remained rural, even as the nature of their issues started turning somewhat urban, he said.
Ajit Pawar had a complete grasp of this kind of politics and the skill to handle it adeptly. Pimpri Chinchwad and Baramati are two excellent examples of that. Whether it was Pimpri Chinchwad or Baramati, Ajit Dada transformed these regions in ways that even his political opponents would acknowledge, Thackeray said.
“He was a leader with a precise grip on administration and an exact knowledge of where to untangle the knots in a file to resolve it. In an era when administration must rise above those in power, it is extremely tragic that Maharashtra has lost such a leader,” Thackeray said.
Ajit Pawar was remarkably straightforward, Thackeray said, noting that if something couldn’t be done, he would say it to the face, and if it could, he would put all his energy into it. Deceiving people by making promises and surrounding himself with crowds wasn’t his style, he said.
“Another quality of Ajit Pawar that I admired was that he was utterly free of caste bias, and caste had absolutely no place in his politics. In today’s politics, leaders who demonstrate the courage to engage without regard for caste are dwindling, and Ajit Pawar was undoubtedly at the forefront among them,” he added.
Opposition in politics is political, not personal. That’s why leaders in Maharashtra who keep in mind that poisonous criticism of each other shouldn’t be taken personally are becoming fewer. The successive departure of generous opponents from politics is a great loss to Maharashtra’s fine political tradition, Thackeray noted. (PTI)
