What Supriya Sule, who defeated Ajit Pawar’s wife in Baramati, said after her cousin's death

Senior Nationalist Congress Party–Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) leader Supriya Sule said she was “devastated” after Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and cousin Ajit Pawar died in a plane crash in Pune’s Baramati area on Tuesday morning. The aircraft, which was flying from Mumbai to Baramati, crash-landed at around 8.50 am, killing all six people on board, including Pawar.

Ajit Pawar, 66, was travelling to Baramati to attend public meetings linked to the February 5 zilla parishad election campaign. Soon after the news broke, Sule, along with NCP leader Praful Patel, his wife Sunetra, and son Parth, left for Baramati.

“Devastated (sic),” Sule wrote on her WhatsApp status.


According to a police official, the aircraft crashed while landing at Baramati airport. Pawar was heading to Baramati, which is also Sule’s Lok Sabha constituency, as part of his election outreach. The crash left no survivors and triggered shock across Maharashtra’s political landscape. Last year, Supriya Sule defeated Ajit Pawar's wife and retained her Baramati Lok Sabha seat by more than 1.55 lakh votes.

The Pawar family and its political roots

The Pawar family has remained deeply influential in Maharashtra’s cooperative movement, rural politics, and power centres in Mumbai and Delhi for decades. Known for its strong internal bonds, the family faced a rare public rupture in 2023 when Ajit Pawar led a split in the Nationalist Congress Party.

Ajit Pawar broke away from the faction led by his uncle and party founder Sharad Pawar and joined the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance, reshaping state politics.

Political divide, personal bond

During the split, critics pointed to the growing stature of Supriya Sule within the party as one of the reasons behind the divide. Sule, Sharad Pawar’s daughter and a Member of Parliament from Baramati, emerged as the national face of the NCP. She was often seen as measured and communicative, while Ajit Pawar was known for taking bold and controversial political decisions.

Despite the political fallout, Sule consistently said that personal relationships remained untouched.

“Relationships shouldn't come in between politics. The fight between the NCP and Ajit Pawar is ideological and not personal,” she said at the time.

Ahead of the Pune Municipal Corporation elections, Sule again said there had never been any issue within the family.

Recent political coordination

In recent municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party contested in alliance with Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP), showing continued political coordination despite earlier differences.

Ajit Pawar’s sudden death has now cast a shadow over one of Maharashtra’s most complex political relationships, bringing together grief, legacy, and unfinished political chapters.