Indian deputy chief minister for Maharashtra state, Ajit Pawar, has died in a plane crash along with two members of his staff and two crew members.
According to the country’s aviation regulator, the plane, which had taken off from Mumbai, crash-landed at the airport in Pawar’s constituency of Baramati, where it had been headed.
While the cause of the crash has not been officially confirmed, footages from the crash site show the wreckage of a plane engulfed in plumes of smoke and flame.
Pawar’s foray into politics began in the 1980s, when he joined his uncle’s party.
In his early years in politics, he focused on the grassroots and built networks with workers’ unions and local cooperative banks. His people skills and political savvy helped him rise up the party’s ranks swiftly.
He was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative assembly from Baramati for the first time in 1991. Over the years, he would end up being re-elected from the same constituency several times, reflecting his strong connection with voters.
Pawar has headed key ministries within different governments, including agriculture and finance. He was regarded as a shrewd administrator and skilled orator, and his witty remarks and fiery speeches have made headlines and landed him in controversies many times.
He has also faced corruption allegations, which he denied. In 2009, when he was the state’s irrigation minister, he was accused of awarding projects to contractors at inflated costs.
The shadow of the ‘irrigation scam’, as it was called in the local media, would dog his career for the next decade, even though he repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and never faced formal charges.
