Mumbai (Maharashtra): Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday announced a state holiday and three days of state mourning following the death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in a plane crash earlier in the day.
Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Fadnavis described Pawar’s demise as an irreparable loss to the state and said the decision regarding his last rites would be taken after consultations with the family. “A state holiday has been declared today, and three days of mourning will be observed across Maharashtra. This loss cannot be compensated,” the Chief Minister said.
Expressing deep grief, Fadnavis said a wave of sorrow had swept across the state. Remembering Pawar as a resilient and hardworking leader, he said such leadership takes years to build and recalled Pawar’s significant contribution to Maharashtra’s development. Calling it a personal loss, Fadnavis said he had lost not just a colleague but a close friend.
The Chief Minister said he and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde would soon leave for Baramati, where Pawar’s mortal remains have been brought. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had spoken to him and conveyed their condolences. Fadnavis said he had already spoken to Supriya Sule and Parth Pawar and that the family would be consulted in Baramati before finalising the funeral arrangements.
A large crowd gathered outside the Baramati hospital as news of Pawar’s death spread. Several senior NCP leaders, including working president Praful Patel, NCP (SCP) MP Supriya Sule, along with Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar and son Parth Pawar, travelled to Baramati from New Delhi.
Ajit Pawar died in a chartered aircraft crash while travelling from Mumbai to Baramati on Wednesday morning. He had been in Mumbai a day earlier to attend a meeting of the Maharashtra Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure, chaired by Chief Minister Fadnavis.
Aged 66, Ajit Pawar was the nephew of veteran leader and NCP founder Sharad Pawar and the cousin of Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule. He was the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in non-consecutive terms, having held the post six times under different governments led by Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.
He is survived by his wife Sunetra Pawar and sons Jay and Parth Pawar.
