After the Strongman Fell Silent

Ajit Pawar’s sudden death has left allies, rivals and Pune city itself groping for its bearings.

For a brief moment, Pune’s politics looked unusually tidy. The municipal election results delivered a decisive verdict: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the undisputed winner, its dominance unchallenged even by partners within the ruling alliance. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Ajit Pawar, though part of the same governing arrangement at the state level, trailed well behind. The Congress clung to relevance with a modest tally, while the rest of the opposition - splintered, dispirited and increasingly marginal - failed to register meaningful gains. Then, abruptly, the man who had long complicated Pune’s political arithmetic was gone.

Study in Asymmetry

The elections themselves were a study in asymmetry. The BJP’s campaign was disciplined and confident, reflecting its broader grip over Maharashtra’s urban centres. Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction, widely expected to cross the 40-seat mark, fell short, settling for second place but well behind the BJP’s commanding position. The Congress managed around 15 seats, enough to survive but not to shape outcomes. Shiv Sena in its various avatars, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the Sharad Pawar–led NCP faction barely made a dent. Some failed even to open their account. The result left the opposition not merely defeated, but mute.

Victory emboldened the BJP. Party leaders spoke openly of claiming every key post in the municipal corporation: mayor, deputy mayor, standing committee chairmanship and leader of the house. Ganesh Bidkar, known for his proximity to Devendra Fadnavis, was swiftly elected group leader, underlining the party’s sense that power was now a matter of administration rather than negotiation. In Pune, where coalitions are often messy and local egos large, such clarity is rare and rarely lasts.

It did not. Ajit Pawar’s accidental death altered the political landscape overnight. For years he had been both ally and adversary to the BJP: a partner in government at the state level, but a fierce competitor on the ground in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. BJP leaders had contested elections directly against him, often framing the contest as a battle between rival models of governance. His absence now raises awkward questions. Will the BJP continue to accommodate the NCP faction he once led, now under the stewardship of Sunetra Pawar? Or will it prefer to see the NCP relegated to the role of leader of the opposition within the municipal set-up?

The dilemma is not merely arithmetic is personal and political. Ajit Pawar was a transactional politician, but also a remarkably accessible one. As guardian minister for Pune, his office was famously open to representatives of all parties. He cultivated an image of restless competence, conducting early-morning inspections and personally monitoring flagship projects: the city’s long-delayed ring road, the redevelopment of the Shivajinagar ST bus stand, the extension of the metro into semi-rural fringes, and the upgrading of pilgrimage sites across the district. His rhetoric was blunt and relatable. Pune’s traffic, he liked to say, was so chaotic that families worried until relatives returned home safely. He promised publicly to fix it.

That style of governance created expectations as much as it delivered projects. With Pawar gone, the question of who will become guardian minister looms large. Will the successor match his energy, or retreat into bureaucratic caution? Will projects retain momentum, or become entangled in inter-party bargaining? For a city already struggling with congestion, uneven infrastructure and the pressures of rapid growth, continuity matters.

Strategy Recalibration

The silence of the BJP’s opponents is therefore deceptive. It reflects shock as much as defeat. Pawar’s death has removed a central pole around which Pune’s politics revolved, but it has not resolved the underlying tensions. If anything, it has exposed them. The BJP’s supremacy is real, yet it must decide whether to govern alone or manage an uneasy partnership with a diminished but still consequential ally. The NCP, meanwhile, must redefine itself without its most formidable organiser.

Secondly, following Ajit Pawar’s death and the resulting changes in the political landscape, the BJP will have to change its strategy.

To counter Ajit Pawar, the young Maratha leader Murlidhar Mohol was given a ministerial position at the Centre, specifically the co-operation portfolio.

Mohol fulfilled his responsibility effectively. He challenged Pawar and defeated him in two municipal corporations. But how will they counter Sunetra Pawar, especially as she will be riding high on a wave of public sympathy? The BJP will have to think hard about this.

Then, how will the saffron party maintain relations with Ajit Dada’s close associates like Rupali Chakankar, Kiran Gujar and Dattatrey Bharne? Many such questions will arise in western Maharashtra in the coming days.

Pune has seen many political transitions, but few as sudden or as personal. Elections produce winners and losers; accidents produce vacuums. How the BJP fills this one will shape not just the municipal corporation, but the city’s trajectory. For now, the opposition is quiet. That does not mean the story is over.

(The writer is a senior Pune-based journalist and political analyst. Views personal.)