Pune, Jan 28 (PTI) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s mortal remains were brought to an educational institute in Baramati in Pune district on Wednesday evening amid outpouring of emotions as grief-stricken NCP workers and local residents shouted slogans hailing the late leader.
Slogans like ‘Ajit dada amar rahe” and “Ajit dada parat ya” (long live Ajit dada, Ajit dada come back) reverberated the air as the mortal remains were brought to the premises of the Vidya Pratishtan in his home turf of Baramati to allow people to pay their last respects to the NCP president.
Pawar (66) and four other persons on board a chartered aircraft were killed after it crashed barely 200 metres from the edge of a tabletop runway at the Baramati airport on Wednesday morning. The death of the veteran politician, fondly known as Dada (elder brother), has not only left a vacuum in the BJP -led state coalition government, but also cast a shadow on the future of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he headed.
His mortal remains, which were at the Medical College in Baramati, were brought to the Vidya Pratishtan in a vehicle decked with flowers as people standing on both sides of the road got emotional and broke down.
The last rites of the NCP president will be performed at the ground of Vidya Pratishtan, an educational institute founded by the Pawar family, with full state honours at 11 am on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, leaders across political spectrum and people from all walks of life will be attending the funeral.
A large number of people and party workers from Baramati as well across the state flocked to the town, synonymous with the politically powerful Pawar family, to pay tribute to the late leader.
Manoj Wagh, a local teacher, said the people of Baramati were still to come to terms with Pawar’s sudden death.
“Every development work in Baramati has imprint of Ajit dada,” he noted. PTI SPK RSY
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