A commercial airliner carrying Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister of India’s state of Maharashtra, crashed on Wednesday, killing him and four other people on board, authorities said.
The plane was on its way from India’s financial capital Mumbai to Pawar’s hometown of Baramati when it crashed and burst into flames in a field about 254 kilometers from the state capital.
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The cause of the crash was not immediately known and an investigation is ongoing.
Who is Ajit Pawar?
Pawar, 66, is an important politician and the second-highest elected official in India’s richest state, Maharashtra.
He was an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state government and led a faction that split from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2023.
He wielded great influence in the state’s Sugar Belt and was known for his ability to mobilize rural voters.
Pawar was born on July 22, 1959, and began his political career in the late 1980s with the Indian National Congress Party (commonly known as the Nationalist Congress Party) under the influence of his uncle Sharad Pawar, according to a report in India’s The Hindu newspaper.
He was first elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Baramati constituency in 1991 and served as the representative for a record eight terms.
Pawar joined the NCP after his powerful uncle formed it in 1999 and served several terms as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra in the NCP-led coalition government over the past two decades.
In 2019, Pawar briefly left the NCP and joined the Maharashtra BJP cabinet as deputy chief minister. He later returned to the party, and in 2023, he collaborated with the BJP-led coalition government to engineer a split within the NCP.
In February 2024, the Election Commission of India recognized Ajit Pawar’s faction as the official NCP. In the same year, he was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the sixth time.
What is Pawar’s legacy?
Pawar’s contributions to regional development were particularly notable in the Pimpri-Chinchwad region of Maharashtra, where he pushed for “major infrastructure projects, including widening roads and improving public facilities,” according to a report in The Indian Express.
Baramati, in particular, oversaw the development of forts along with his uncle Sharad Pawar, and several infrastructure projects were transformed to his credit.
However, Pawar was also accused of corruption in two high-profile cases.
In the Maharashtra irrigation fraud case, he is accused of engaging in fraudulent activities in awarding millions of dollars worth of public works contracts between 1999 and 2009.
Last year, he was named in a land scam case in Pune, Maharashtra, where a company owned by his son was accused of purchasing government reservation land at below market prices. Due to the uproar, the contract was canceled.
Government investigations into both fraud allegations remain inconclusive.
How did Pawar die?
Mr Pawar’s plane, which had departed from Mumbai, attempted to make an emergency landing in Baramati, his family’s home base, where he was planning to campaign for local elections.
According to local media, the Learjet 45 aircraft operated by VSR Ventures crashed into a field while landing at Baramati Airport at around 8:30 a.m. (03:00 GMT).
The chartered plane burst into flames and crashed, according to India’s aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Video from the crash site showed smoke billowing from parts of the plane’s burning wreckage and scattering across a field.
“At first it was on fire, then there were four or five more explosions,” an unidentified witness told India’s ANI news agency. But the flames were so intense that no one could be rescued, he added.
According to the DGCA, Pawar was traveling with his personal security guard, an assistant and two crew members at the time of the accident.
VSR Ventures director VKSingh told broadcaster India Today that the cause of the crash was not clear.
“The aircraft is 100 percent safe,” he said. “The crew was pretty experienced.”
What was your reaction?
In a post shared on X, PM Modi described Pawar as a “people’s leader” and said Pawar’s “untimely death” was “shocking and sad”.
“Shri Ajit Pawar Ji was a leader of the people… [with] It’s a strong grassroots connection,” Modi said, adding that he is a “widely respected” and “hard-working” political heavyweight.
“His understanding of government issues and passion for empowering the poor and downtrodden were also notable.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also posted his condolences for Mr. X, calling Pawar’s death “extremely painful.”
“My thoughts are with the people of Maharashtra at this time of grief,” he wrote.
“There are no words to express my emotions,” said Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
“I lost a strong and generous friend,” he posted on social media.
