Baramati – India’s deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, Ajit Pawar, has died after a charter aircraft crashed and burst into flames while approaching the city of Baramati on Wednesday, according to a report by Reuters. Four other people on board the aircraft were also killed.
Pawar, a senior political figure from one of India’s most influential political families, was travelling to his home region to canvass for local body elections when the crash occurred. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the Learjet 45 aircraft was operated by VSR Ventures and was carrying two of Pawar’s staff members and two crew members.
“No person on board has survived,” the aviation regulator said in an initial statement, as quoted by Reuters.
VK Singh, the director of VSR Ventures, told broadcaster India Today that the aircraft crashed during its approach to Baramati, although the cause was not immediately clear. “The aircraft is 100% safe,” he said. “The crew was fairly experienced.”
Video footage aired by local media showed smoke rising from burning wreckage scattered across an open field. An eyewitness described multiple explosions after the impact. “At first it was on fire, after that there were four or five more explosions,” an unidentified witness told ANI news agency, adding that the flames were too intense to allow any rescue.
According to Reuters, the aircraft had departed from Mumbai, India’s financial capital, and attempted an emergency landing in Baramati, about 250 kilometres away, where Pawar was expected to campaign.
Pawar backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra and led a faction that split from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party in 2023. In a post on X cited by Reuters, Modi said Pawar’s death was “shocking and saddening”.
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