Ajit Ashatai Anantrao Pawar[a][2] (Marathi pronunciation: [əd͡ʒit̪ pəʋaːɾ]; born 22 July 1959)[3] is an Indian politician serving as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra along with Eknath Shinde under Devendra Fadnavis since 5 December 2024.

He has worked as deputy chief minister within the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.

Following the footsteps of his uncle Sharad Pawar in Indian National Congress,[12] Ajit made his first foray into politics in 1982 when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory.

[16] After the INC-NCP coalition won in the 2004 Assembly elections, he retained the Water Resources Ministry in Deshmukh's and later Ashok Chavan's cabinets.

[17] On 23 November 2019, he defected from NCP and joined a government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and became the Deputy Chief Minister.

After the rebel Shiv Sena faction and BJP formed a government with Eknath Shinde as CM, Pawar became the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

The Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) leased 141.15 ha (348.8 acres) to Lavasa in August 2002, which included part of the Warasgaon dam reservoir.

These allegations were made by the Maharashtra bureaucrat Vijay Pandhare, and caused the anti-corruption activist Anjali Damania to demand Pawar's resignation as a minister.