Ajit Pawar Resigns Ahead of Filling Nominations, ED Case May Be Reason

Mumbai, September 27, 2019 : Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar (60) resigned from Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), and it has created political talking point.

Haribhau Bagade, the Current Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and leader of Bharatiya Janata Party, accepted Pawar’s resignation.

As the dates of State Assembly Elections have been announced, the term of the MLAs are going to lapse automatically, hence Ajit Pawar’s resignation is unusual. Ajit Anantrao Pawar is the nephew of Sharad Pawar, the chief of Nationalist Congress Party.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) Money laundering case

Few days back the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered money laundering case in Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam against NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his nephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and others.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar was going to visit the ED office in Mumbai but called off the visit after ED gave him a letter that his presence is not required, they will call him if required.

A criminal PIL was filed on 28.01.2019 before Bombay High Court in case of Maharashtra state cooperative bank scam. The High Court after detailed hearing and going through the complaint, on 22.08.2019 directed the EOW, Mumbai Police to register an FIR .

The FIR was thereafter filed and consequently an ECIR was recorded on 23/09/2019 against the then Chairman, MDs, Directors of Maharashtra State Cooperative bank (MSC), along with Mr. Sharad Pawar, Mr. Ajit Pawar, Mr. Diliprao Deshmukh, Mr. Isharlal Jain, Mr. Jayant Patil, Mr. Shivaji Rao Nalvade, Mr. Anand Rao Adsul, Mr. Rajendra Shingane, Mr. Madan Patil and others.

It is alleged that the then top executives i.e. Chairman, MDs, Directors, CEOs, managerial staff of Maharashtra state cooperative bank (MSC) and office bearers and directors of Sakhar Karkhanas (cooperative sugar factories “CSF”), Soot Girnis and other processing units were given loans in a fraudulent manner by MSC Bank and in process several illegalities were committed. The scam is pegged at Rs 25,000 crore.

The loans provided to Cooperative Sugar Factories (CSFs) by the officials of the MSC bank, who were connected with the owners of CSFs.

There were several irregularities in the sanctioning of the loans committed, only with the purpose of extending benefits to the Directors of the lending bank, for personal gains thereby defrauding and cheating the bank and its shareholders. Loans were sanctioned to CSFs, despite having weak financials and negative net worth. No collateral was taken in many cases and loans were extended on basis of fraudulent and dishonest representation to the bank. Additional working facilities were also extended to a certain few CSFs without having any prudent reasons.

Ajit Pawar Early life

Ajit Anantrao Pawar was born on 22 July 1959 at his grandfather’s place in Deolali Pravara, Ahmednagar district. He completed his schooling in Deolali, Pravara. He hails from the village of Katevadi in Baramati Taluka, Pune district. He is the Nephew of the Nationalist Congress Party President, Sharad Pawar.

Ajit Pawar is the son of Sharad Pawar’s elder brother Anantrao Pawar. Anantrao had initially worked for renowned film maker, V.Shantaram’s “Rajkamal Studios” in Mumbai. Ajit Pawar’s grandfather Govindrao Pawar was employed with Baramati Co-operative trading and his grandmother looked after the family farm. Pawar was pursuing his graduation but he had to leave formal education due to untimely death of his father, so he left college and started looking after his family. He is educated to Secondary school level and holds the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) from the Maharashtra State Board.

Political life

While Ajit Pawar was pursuing his education at Deolali Pravara, his Uncle, Sharad Pawar had become a rising political figure in the ruling Congress party. Therefore, Ajit moved to Mumbai for his further education.Pawar made his foray into politics in 1982 when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory . He was elected chairman of the Pune District Co-operative Bank (PDC) in 1991 and remained in the post for 16 years. During this period he was also elected as Member of parliament, Lok Sabha from the Baramati. He later vacated his Lok Sabha seat in favour of his uncle, Sharad Pawar, who had then become defence minister in PV Narasimha Rao’s government. Thereafter, he was elected as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Baramati. Pawar was re-elected from the same constituency in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014.

He went on to become minister of state for Agriculture and Power (June 1991 – November 1992) in Sudhakarrao Naik’s government. Later he became minister of state for Soil Conservation, Power and Planning (November 1992 – February 1993) when Sharad Pawar returned to the state as chief minister. When the Indian National Congress-NCP coalition came into power in 1999, Pawar was promoted to cabinet minister, firstly in the Irrigation Department (October 1999 – December 2003) in Vilasrao Deshmukh’s government.

He was given additional charge of the Rural Development Department (December 2003 – October 2004) in Sushilkumar Shinde’s government. When Congress-NCP combination returned to power in 2004 he retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh’s government and later in Ashok Chavan’s government. He also became the Guardian minister for Pune district in 2004 and held the post until the Congress – NCP coalition lost power in 2014.