India's Maharashtra deputy chief minister, four others die in plane crash
The deputy chief minister of India’s wealthiest state, Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, was killed on Wednesday after his charter aircraft crashed and burst into flames, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Pawar, a senior politician from a prominent political family, was traveling to his home region to campaign in local body elections, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
The aviation regulator said the aircraft was carrying Pawar, two members of his staff, and two crew members. “No person on board has survived,” it said in an initial statement.
Pawar was a key ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, leading a faction that split in 2023 from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party to join the state government.
Video footage broadcast by local media showed thick plumes of smoke rising from burning wreckage scattered across an open field.
According to reports, the aircraft had departed from the financial capital Mumbai and attempted an emergency landing in Pawar’s family stronghold of Baramati, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, where he was scheduled to campaign in the elections.
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