Mumbai: With conspiracy theories floating around following Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s sudden death in a plane crash Wednesday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar made a public appeal to not bring politics into it.
The senior Pawar, in a video statement, said, “I wasn’t going to speak before the media today, but some media have put forth a point of view that there could be politics behind this incident. But, there is no politics in this. It is merely an accident.”
“The agony of this death is felt by Maharashtra, by all of us. Please do not bring politics into it. That’s all I have to say,” the visibly emotional NCP founder added.
On Wednesday morning, a Learjet 45 business jet carrying Ajit Pawar crash landed in Baramati, leaving all five passengers dead.
Sharad Pawar arrived in Baramati on Wednesday afternoon. He visited the crash site, and then headed to the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Government Medical College where the mortal remains of all five passengers were kept.
In his statement on Wednesday evening, Pawar further said, “Ajit Pawar’s untimely death is a massive shock to Maharashtra. The state has today lost a capable and decisive leader. The loss cannot be compensated, but not everything is in our hands.”
Sharad Pawar and nephew Ajit Pawar shared a complex political equation. Ajit always wished to be at the helm of the undivided NCP, amid questions over who would take over the octogenarian’s legacy, nephew Ajit or daughter Supriya Sule.
In July 2023, Ajit Pawar led an open rebellion against his uncle, walking out of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP with a maximum number of MLAs in tow. He joined the Mahayuti with the BJP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and went on to prove that his NCP was the real NCP in a battle in the Election Commission.
This year, the two NCPs came together to contest the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation polls together against the BJP, sparking talks of a possible permanent reunion of the two sides.
Sule, Baramati MP, who always maintained that the differences between the two sides were not personal, refrained from immediately making any statement on Wednesday. Sule, who was seen breaking down with her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar, Ajit Pawar’s wife, only put up a Whatsapp status that said, “Devastated.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)