File photo of Sharad Pawar with Ajit Pawar.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Ajit Pawar grew up under the tutelage of his uncle and mentor Sharad Pawar and no one in Maharashtra politics expected him to rebel and split the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Hence, the June-July 2023 split came as a shocker.
'Saheb', as the Senior Pawar is known, lost the party name and iconic 'clock’ symbol and had to settle with the party name NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and ‘man-playing-tutari’ (trumpet) symbol.
The development did not only fracture the party that Pawar floated in 1999, but also deeply impacted Baramati and the Pawar-family.
An emotional man, Ajit Pawar had broken down a few times while speaking about his uncle in the aftermath of the split.
However, before his death, Dada, as Ajit Pawar is popularly known, had patched up with his 'Saheb'.
In the run-up to the local body elections, efforts were made to bring together NCP and NCP (SP) leaders in Pune district, the family’s political stronghold. Around the same time, both Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar’s daughter, Supriya Sule, dropped clear hints that differences within the family had been resolved.
Ajit Pawar maintained that family matters should not be linked to politics. “That is our internal matter. As a family, we are one. We stand by each other in times of joy and sorrow,” Ajit Pawar had said.
Responding to this, NCP (SP) Working President Supriya Sule said: “Yes, after the split, we are coming together for the first time for a joint political event in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad (for municipal corporation elections). This is for the development of Pune. Let's see what happens next.”
The Pawar family has interests across multiple business sectors.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections were held within months of the party split. Ajit Pawar fielded his wife, Sunetra Pawar, against Supriya Sule from Baramati, though Sule emerged victorious. Sunetra Pawar was later nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
In the 2024 Vidhan Sabha elections, Ajit Pawar backed his grand-nephew Yugendra Pawar against his uncle; the younger Pawar lost the contest.
During the latter half of 2025, members of the family met several times and decided to close ranks. The acerbic public exchanges stopped.
"Ajit Dada left us when everything was returning to normal in the family and the party...we are shocked...we don't know how to come out of it," a close family aide told DH and broke down. "We all now look up to Saheb...we will surely handle the situation," he added.
Ajit Pawar’s elder brother, Shrinivas Pawar, runs automobile and farm ventures. His uncle Prataprao Pawar and nephew Abhijit Pawar head the Sakal Media Group. The family continues to wield significant influence across Maharashtra. Nephew Rohit Pawar is an MLA from Karjat–Jamkhed.
The family’s political and cooperative roots go back to Ajit Pawar’s grandparents, Govindrao and Shardabai Pawar. Govindrao was active in the cooperative movement and sugar sector, while Shardabai worked extensively at the grassroots. In 1938, she was elected unopposed to the Pune local board, making her one of the few prominent women political figures in the district at the time.
Govindrao and Shardabai had 11 children—seven sons and four daughters—whose careers spanned across law, agriculture, engineering, automobiles, industry, real estate, education, cooperatives, media and politics.
The last occasion when the entire Pawar clan came together publicly was on December 28, 2025, when Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani visited Baramati to inaugurate the new complex of the Sharad Pawar Centre for Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, part of the Vidya Pratishthan established by Sharad Pawar, a four-time Maharashtra Chief Minister and three-time Union Minister.