Baramati: The last rites of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar (66), who was killed in a plane crash, along with four others here yesterday, was performed with full State honours at the family-owned Vidya Pratishthan Educational Institutions ground here this afternoon.

Ajit Pawar’s sons Parth Pawar and Jay Pawar lit the pyre, even as the galaxy of leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, BJP National President Nitin Nabin and thousands of Nationalist Congress Party workers, bid a tearful adieu to the departed leader.

Former Maharashtra CM Sharad Pawar, the uncle of Ajit Pawar and the President of splinter faction of NCP, named as NCP (SP), was also present,  grieving the loss of his nephew, who was groomed as his political successor, till he revolted against his own uncle. 

Ajit Pawar’s wife Rajya Sabha MP Sunetra Pawar, his cousin and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule and the extended members of Pawar family, were inconsolable, throughout the last rites.