Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) chief and former Maharashtra CM Sharad Pawar on Wednesday dismissed speculations of foul play in the plan accident that claimed the Life of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
Sharad appealed to people not to politicize the tragedy and called the Baramati accident a “pure accident”. He said that some sectors tried to give the incident a political color.
“There is no politics involved. It is purely an accident. It has caused immense pain to me and the entire state of Maharashtra. I appeal to everyone not to politicize this tragedy,” the NCP-SP chief said.
Pawar Senior was in New Delhi to attend Parliament budget session, but interrupted his commitments and left immediately after receiving the news of his nephew’s death.
Describing Ajit’s death as a severe blow to the state, he said Maharashtra had lost a very capable and experienced leader. “This is a loss that can never be recovered. However, not everything is in our hands. We are deeply hurt and I ask everyone not to bring politics into this,” he said.
Ajit’s sudden demise has left a significant void not only in the BJP-led ruling coalition in Maharashtra but also within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which he led in its previous uninterrupted avatar.
What happened?
Ajit Pawar was traveling from Bombay to Baramati on Wednesday morning to address multiple public meetings as part of the campaign for the February 5 Zilla Parishad elections in Maharashtra. He plane, a Learjet 45commonly used for VIP and charter travel, crashed near Baramati airport in Pune district.
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Apart from Ajit Pawar, Captain Sumit Kapoor, who had a flight experience of 15,000 hours, co-pilot Captain Shambhavi Pathak, with 1,500 flight hours, Personal Security Officer (PSO) Vidip Jadhavand stewardess Pinky Mali died in the accident.
Officials said the plane’s black box comprising the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) will be analyzed after recovery to determine the exact cause of the crash.