Convincing Ajit Dada was not easy

At one point in time, the maverick Ajit Pawar was considered as the political heir of NCP founder-president Sharad Pawar.

But the 60-year old Pawar nephew has landed himself in an embarrassing situation, twice in three months.

First in September, when he resigned as Baramati MLA in the wake of his name coming in Rs 25,000 crore MSCB scam and now switching sides to BJP.

His plan was to take a sizable number of 54 NCP MLAs and form a government.

BJP's Devendra Fadnavis and Pawar became the CM and Dy CM, respectively, but had to resign.

He reached a point of no return - but pressure from party and family led him to put in his papers.

When Pawar Jr left he had the support of 36 MLAs enough to escape anti-defection law, but in 80 hrs, he was left with just two.

To convince him, a battery of NCP leaders Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Jayant Patil, Dilip Walse-Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal spoke to him over phone several times, and held closed-door meetings.

His aunt, Pratibha Tai also spoke to him.

Besides, Sadanand Sule, husband of Supriya Sule also met him.

Dada, as he is popularly known, is a seven-time MLA from Baramati, was considered the political heir to Sharad Pawar.

"It was very clear in the family, that Ajit will be in state politics, Supriya in national politics," Pawar family sources said.

Now, we have third-generation politicians from family Rohit Pawar, an MLA from Karjat-Jamkhed.

Ajit's son Parth was launched in politics during Lok Sabha polls but he lost from Maval.