Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar Killed In Plane Crash

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday morning.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the chartered aircraft flying from Mumbai to Baramati crash-landed around 8:45 am at the runway threshold in Baramati. All five people on board-including Pawar, his personal security officer, an attendant, and two crew members-lost their lives. Further details on the incident are awaited.

Pawar was en route to Baramati to address a public rally for the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections. Just a day earlier, he had attended a meeting of the Maharashtra Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure in Mumbai, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and attended by Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule along with senior officials.

A Political Career Spanning Four Decades

Ajit Pawar was Maharashtra's longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister, holding the post across six different terms under leaders including Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray, and Eknath Shinde.

His political journey began in 1982 when he was elected to the board of a cooperative sugar factory. By 1991, he had become chairman of the Pune District Central Cooperative Bank. That same year, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Baramati but vacated the seat for his uncle, Sharad Pawar.

Pawar went on to represent the Baramati Assembly constituency seven times in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, beginning with a by-election in 1991 and continuing through successive victories in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014.

In November 2019, he orchestrated a split within the NCP and briefly allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a government, serving again as Deputy CM. In February 2024, the Election Commission recognized his faction as the official NCP, granting it the party name and symbol.

Ajit Pawar is survived by his wife, Sunetra Pawar, and their two sons, Jay and Parth Pawar.