- Supriya Sule mourned the death of Ajit Pawar in a Baramati air crash today
- Ajit Pawar and five others died when their plane crash-landed at Baramati airport
- Despite political splits, Sule stated no personal differences with Ajit Pawar existed
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) leader Supriya Sule said she was "devastated" by the tragic death of her "Dada" and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who died in an air crash in Pune's Baramati area in the morning. Sule, along with NCP leader Praful Patel, his wife Sunetra, and son Parth, is on their way to Baramati after an aircraft carrying Pawar and five others crash-landed at Baramati airport, killing all six people on board.
"Devastated (sic)", Sule, who is Pawar's cousin, wrote on her WhatsApp status.
Pawar (66) was travelling to Baramati-- Sule's constituency-- from Mumbai to address public meetings as part of the campaign for the February 5 zilla parishad elections in the state. The aircraft crashed at 8.50 am, a police official said.
The Pawar Family Ties
For decades, the Pawar family has been at the centre of Maharashtra's cooperative movement, rural politics and shifting power equations in Mumbai and Delhi. The family, which remained united at its core, saw a public falling in 2023, when Ajit Pawar led a major split in the NCP, breaking away from uncle and patriarch Sharad Pawar's faction to join the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.
Critics at the time said the rift was fuelled by the rise of Supriya Sule, Sharad Pawar's daughter, within the party fold. A Member of Parliament from Baramati and the national face of the NCP, Sule was seen as measured, communicative, and nationally orientated. In contrast, Ajit Pawar's political relevance was defined by his willingness to take bold and controversial risks.
However, despite the public split, Sule at the time maintained there were no personal differences with her "brother", Ajit Pawar.
"Relationships shouldn't come in between politics. The fight between the NCP and Ajit Pawar is ideological and not personal," she said at the time.
Recently, before the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections, Sule again said that there has never been any issue within their family.
Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had contested the recent municipal corporation elections in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad in alliance with his uncle Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP).
