New Delhi (TDI): Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of India’s wealthiest state, Maharashtra, was killed on Wednesday when his charter aircraft went down in flames, taking the lives of all five people on board, according to the country’s aviation regulator.
Pawar, a prominent politician from a leading political family, was traveling to his home region to campaign in local body elections, media reports said. Also on board were two of his staff members and two crew, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation confirmed.
“No person on board has survived,” the aviation authority stated in its initial briefing. Videos circulating on social media showed thick plumes of smoke rising from the scattered wreckage of the plane in an open field. Reports indicate that the aircraft, which departed from Mumbai, attempted an emergency landing in Baramati, about 250 kilometers away, where Pawar was scheduled to campaign.
Pawar, who led a faction that broke away from the Nationalist Congress Party in 2023, supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra’s state government.
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Prime Minister Modi expressed his condolences on X, saying, “Saddened by the tragic air crash in Baramati, Maharashtra. My thoughts are with all those who lost their loved ones in the crash. Praying for strength and courage for the bereaved families in this moment of profound grief.”
The crash comes just a week after a training aircraft of the Indian Air Force went down in Uttar Pradesh, though both pilots survived unharmed.
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Maharashtra’s tragedy also recalls the July 2025 Air India disaster, in which a flight bound for London crashed shortly after takeoff, killing more than 200 people. Only one passenger survived that crash, which occurred in a residential area near a medical college hostel.
