Ajit Pawar

Ajit Pawar was born on 22 July 1959 into a family with deep political roots in western Maharashtra. He is survived by his wife, Sunetra Pawar, and their two sons, Jay and Parth Pawar.

He entered electoral politics in the early 1990s and was first elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Baramati in 1991. He was re-elected from the seat in later contests, most recently in 2024. He was Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in the Congress-NCP government until he resigned in September 2012 following allegations of involvement in an irrigation scam, and was sworn in again in December 2012. He took the oath as Deputy Chief Minister on 23 November 2019 and resigned on 26 November. He held the post from 30 December 2019 to June 2022, and from 2 July 2023. He was Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 4 July 2022 and resigned from that post on 30 June 2023. He took the oath as Deputy Chief Minister for a sixth time on 5 December 2024, and had a long tenure as Finance Minister. At the time of his death he was Deputy Chief Minister, and reports described him as chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

On 28 January 2026, a chartered aircraft flying from Mumbai to Baramati crash-landed near Baramati airport in Pune district. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aircraft came down at the runway threshold at about 8:45 a.m. Five people, including the crew, died. Pawar was travelling to Baramati for a public rally ahead of the Zilla Parishad elections.

Sunetra Pawar, who had been a Member of the Rajya Sabha, was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 31 January 2026 in Mumbai. Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath. Business Today reported that she would step down from the Rajya Sabha seat and that she was the state’s first woman Deputy Chief Minister.