'Dada' chants fill the air as Ajit Pawar is laid to rest with full state honours in Maharashtra's Baramati

Mumbai: Ajit Pawar, who died in a plane crash on Wednesday was laid to rest with full state honours in Maharashtra's Baramati on Thursday. The funeral was attended by thousands of followers, who mourned the NCP leader. Ajit's sons, Parth and Jay, performed the last rites of their father.

Thousands of Ajit Pawar's supporters had gathered at the Vidya Pratisthan ground where the NCP leader's mortal remains were brought in for the final rites. Draped in the national flag, Ajit's body was brought from his native village in Katewadi and kept at the Vidya Pratisthan ground for the people to pay their respects. Ajit was laid to rest as his supporters shouted slogans like "Ajit Dada Amar rahe".

Union ministers Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, Goa CM Pramod Sawant, Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh, BJP president Nitin Nabin were among some of the top dignitaries who paid their respects to the Pawar family. Shah also met NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar and condoled the death of his nephew.


Supriya Sule ,Ajit's cousin, was personally involved in taking care of all the arrangements at the funeral.

Ajit Pawar, who headed his own faction of the NCP and was the state deputy chief minister, was killed along with four others when a Learjet 35 aircraft that he was travelling in and was supposed to land in Baramati, crashed near the runway on Wednesday. Along with Ajit Pawar, Captain Sumit Kapoor, co- pilot Captain Shambhavi Pathak, Ajit's PSO Vidip Jadhav and flight attendant Pinky Mali - all succumbed in the plane crash.

Ajit, known popularly as 'Dada', was Maharashtra's longest-serving deputy CM under different governments.

Born on July 22, 1959, Ajit began his career by making his entry into cooperative institutions. His first big political role came when he won the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, however, he later vacated the seat for his uncle Sharad Pawar and he, in turn, contested senior Pawar's assembly seat from Baramati. Ajit represented the Baramati seat from 1991 till his death.

Raut At It Again

Incidentally, the sombre occasion was not without controversy as Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Shiv Sena tried to stir the pot by slamming the BJP on social media for publishing advertisements in newspapers condoling the death of Ajit Pawar. "BJP is really amazing, they have issued full page advertisements giving tributes to Ajit Pawar, what will this accomplish? The real tribute to Ajit Pawar would be if the BJP's Modi and Devendra Fadnavis withdraw their allegation of the Rs 70,000 crore made against Ajit Pawar," wrote Sanjay Raut, UBT Sena MP. The BJP slammed Raut over his post, saying that the UBT Sena wanted to do politics even before Ajit Pawar's "funeral pyre had gone cold".