The Aryavarth Express
Baramati, Maharashtra: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar died on Wednesday morning after a chartered aircraft crash-landed in Baramati, officials said.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Mumbai–Baramati chartered plane crashed at the runway threshold at around 8:45 am. All five people on board, including Pawar, two crew members, and two accompanying staff members—a personal security officer (PSO) and an attendant—were killed in the accident. Authorities said further details regarding the cause of the crash are awaited.
Pawar was travelling to Baramati to attend a public rally in connection with the Zilla Parishad elections. He had been in Mumbai a day earlier to participate in a meeting of the Maharashtra Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Maharashtra Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule and other senior officials were also present at the meeting.
Ajit Pawar was the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, having held the post six times across different governments. He served as deputy chief minister under the leadership of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray, and Eknath Shinde.
He is survived by his wife Sunetra Pawar and their two sons, Jay and Parth Pawar.
Pawar began his political career in 1982 after being elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. In 1991, he became chairman of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank. The same year, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Baramati constituency but later vacated the seat for his uncle, Sharad Pawar.
He went on to be elected seven times to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Baramati, first in a 1991 by-election and subsequently in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014.
In November 2019, Pawar led a split in the NCP and joined a BJP-led government, becoming Deputy Chief Minister. In February 2024, the Election Commission awarded the NCP name and symbol to the faction led by Ajit Pawar.
