Ajit Pawar cremated with full state honours, Top leaders attend funeral in Baramati

The last rites of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who tragically died in a plane crash, were conducted on Thursday with full state honours at the Vidya Pratishthan Ground in Baramati, Pune district. Thousands of mourners gathered to pay their respects, chanting “Ajit Dada amar rahe” as his mortal remains, draped in the national flag, were brought from his village Katewadi.

The 66-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader’s funeral was attended by a host of prominent leaders from across the political spectrum.

Union Ministers present included Amit Shah , Nitin Gadkari , and Ramdas Athawale , while Sharad Pawar , former Union Minister and senior NCP leader, and Nitin Nabin , BJP President, also paid their respects.

State leaders in attendance were Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Goa CM Pramod Sawant, Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh, and former Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

Representatives of the NCP, including Praful Patel , working president of the party and former Union Minister, and Supriya Sule , Ajit Pawar’s cousin and MP from Baramati, were also present.

Ajit Pawar’s family members included his wife Sunetra Pawar, a Rajya Sabha member, and sons Parth and Jay Pawar, who lit the funeral pyre. Leaders and dignitaries placed floral wreaths on his mortal remains, as the ceremony followed the protocols accorded to high-ranking state officials.

Ajit Pawar died when his aircraft crashed barely 200 meters from the edge of the tabletop airstrip at Baramati . Four others on board the pilot Captain Sumit Kapoor , co-pilot Capt. Shambhavi Pathak , Personal Security Officer Vidip Jadhav , and flight attendant Pinky Mali also lost their lives.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has recovered the black box (Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder) from the Learjet aircraft , and police have registered an Accidental Death Report (ADR) .