The deputy chief minister of India’s wealthiest state of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, died Wednesday, along with four other people on board, when his charter aircraft went down in flames, the aviation regulator said. Pawar, who hailed from a top political family, was en route to his home region to canvass in local body elections, media said.
People look at the wreckage of the VSR Ventures-operated Learjet 45 aircraft in which Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed after it crashed in Baramati, India, January 28, 2026. REUTERS
Two of his staff and two crew were also aboard the VSR Ventures-operated Learjet 45 aircraft, the directorate general of civil aviation said. “No person on board has survived,” it added. V K Singh, the director of VSR Ventures, told broadcaster India Today that the plane crashed during its approach to the city of Baramati, but the cause was not clear.
Emergency personnel and people gather at the site of a plane crash, in which Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed, in Baramati, Maharashtra, India January 28, 2026. REUTERS
“The aircraft is 100% safe,” he said. “The crew was fairly experienced.” Video images showed smoke billowing from some of the burning wreckage of the plane, scattered across an open field. “At first it was on fire, after that there were four or five more explosions,” an unidentified witness told the ANI news agency, after seeing the plane crash and explode. But the flames were too fierce to pull anyone out, he added.
Emergency personnel and people gather at the site of a plane crash, in which Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed, in Baramati, Maharashtra, India January 28, 2026. REUTERS
Pawar backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the state government, leading a faction that split in 2023 from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party.
People look at the wreckage of the VSR Ventures-operated Learjet 45 aircraft in which Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and four others were killed after it crashed in Baramati, India, January 28, 2026. REUTERS
In a post on X, Modi said Pawar’s death was “shocking and saddening”. Modi called him a “widely respected” and “hardworking” political stalwart. “His understanding of administrative matters and passion for empowering the poor and downtrodden were also noteworthy,” the prime minister posted.
People pay their last respects to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar after he was killed in a VSR Ventures-operated Learjet 45 aircraft crash in Baramati, India, January 28, 2026. REUTERS
Media said Pawar’s aircraft, travelling from the financial capital of Mumbai, tried to make an emergency landing in the family stronghold of Baramati, 250km away, where he was set to canvass in the elections.
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