Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to depart for Baramati following the tragic demise of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and five others in a plane crash in Baramati, reported news agency IANS.
Pawar and four others were killed after the charter plane carrying them crashed while landing in Maharashtra’s Baramati on Wednesday morning.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), five people were on board the plane when it crashed. None survived the crash.
Reacting to the incident, Shah said that the tragic accident left him deeply distressed.
“The way Ajit Pawar ji dedicated himself to the welfare of every section of society in Maharashtra over the past three and a half decades cannot be expressed in words. Whenever we met, he would engage in long discussions on numerous issues related to the welfare of the people of Maharashtra. His passing is a personal loss not only for the NDA family but also for me,” the Home Minister posted on X.
Earlier, Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The duo was briefed on the incident.
Ajit Pawar’s wife and Rajya Sabha member Sunetra Pawar, their son Parth Pawar, and NCP(SP) MP Supriya Sule, who is the cousin was Pawar, have also departed for Mumbai.
Maharashtra Deputy CM Eknath Shinde is also likely to arrive in Baramati later today as the state government cancelled all the official events in view of the plane crash.
Ajit Pawar was headed to Baramati to attend a campaign rally for the upcoming Zilla Parishad elections.
According to preliminary reports, the plane lost control during the landing and crashed near the runway threshold at the Baramati airport.