Ajit Pawar Laid to Rest With Full State Honours; Amit Shah, Naveen Patnaik Attend Funeral
National leaders gather as Maharashtra bids farewell to senior NCP leader after tragic plane crash
Baramati, Jan 29: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar was cremated with full state honours on Thursday at Baramati in Pune district, as thousands of supporters and senior leaders gathered to bid farewell to one of the state’s most influential political figures.
The last rites of the 66-year-old leader, who died in a tragic plane crash, were performed at the Vidya Pratishthan ground. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, former Union minister Sharad Pawar, and BJP president J.P. Nadda were among the prominent dignitaries who attended the funeral.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde were also present, along with several Union and state ministers, senior politicians and party leaders cutting across political lines.
Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP, his sons Parth and Jay, cousin and Baramati MP Supriya Sule, and NCP working president Praful Patel were present as Parth and Jay lit the funeral pyre. Pawar’s mortal remains, draped in the national flag, were brought from his native village Katewadi amid chants of “Ajit Dada amar rahe”.
Floral tributes were paid by leaders including Ramdas Athawale, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh and several others.
Earlier in the day, Pawar’s body was taken from Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Hospital in Baramati, where it had been kept overnight, to his village before the final rites.
Ajit Pawar and four others were killed when the aircraft they were travelling in crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of a tabletop airstrip. The victims included pilot Captain Sumit Kapoor, co-pilot Captain Shambhavi Pathak, personal security officer Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali. Their bodies have been handed over to their respective families.
Police have registered an accidental death report in connection with the crash. The government has released details of the incident, stating that the aircraft had been cleared for landing after a go-around due to poor visibility but failed to provide a read back to air traffic control before crashing and bursting into flames.
The Civil Aviation Ministry confirmed on Thursday that the aircraft’s black box, including the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, has been recovered, paving the way for a detailed investigation into the cause of the crash.
