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Ajit Pawar, the ‘Dada’ of Baramati, who dominated Maharashtra politics
Pawar was in Mumbai on Tuesday where he attended a meeting of the Maharashtra Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure chaired by CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash near Baramati in Pune district on Wednesday morning.
The incident happened when Pawar’s aircraft, which was enroute from Mumbai, tried to make an emergency landing in Baramati. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief has represented the Baramati constituency in the Parliament and the Maharashtra assembly constituency since 1991.
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Pawar was in Mumbai on Tuesday where he attended a meeting of the Maharashtra Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure chaired by CM Devendra Fadnavis.
According to DGCA, five people on board the chartered plane flying from Mumbai, Maharashtra, to Baramati died after a crash-landing at 8.45 am this morning.
Ajit Pawar remained an influential figure in Maharashtra politics ever since he joined the Eknath Shinde government along with eight MLAs in July 2024, leading to a split in the NCP.
Pawar, who was known as “Dada”, had been a key ally in the Mahayuti government. When the Mahayuti government came to power under Eknath Shinde in 2022, the ruling ally got its support from Pawar a year later following the NCP split.
In the 2024 assembly elections Ajit Pawar fought together with the BJP-Shiv Sena, and won 41 seats in the state. Pawar was also sworn in as the deputy CM, along with Eknath Shinde.
Also Read: Massive fire, plane split on impact: What we know so far about Ajit Pawar plane crash
'Dada' of Baramati
Born on July 22, 1959, Ajit Pawar was known among the people as "Ajit Dada" because of his grassroot connect and tireless striving for the people of Maharashtra.
Pawar has also remained the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra non-consecutively, according to ANI.
He remained influential in the Baramati region, winning the assembly seat for a record eighth time in 2024 state polls. The political bastion remained with Ajit Pawar despite a split in NDA, with uncle Sharad Pawar controlling the other camp.
Ajit Pawar first won the Baramati Lok Sabha seat in 1991 and later vacated the seat for his uncle, Sharad Pawar. Since then, he has won the Baramati assembly seat eight times in a row.
Pawar is survived by wife Sunetra, a member of Rajya Sabha and two sons, Parth and Jay. Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had also contested the recent municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad in alliance with his uncle Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP).
