Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 7 : The NCP workers on Saturday bid farewell to former Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar by immersing his ashes in the sea of Agni Theertha in Rameswaram.
Pawar's last rites were carried out with full state honours at the Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati on January 29, where his sons lit the funeral pyre and carried out the final rituals.
Several prominent leaders and dignitaries, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar, and actor Riteish Deshmukh, attended the funeral and paid their last respects.
Earlier in the day, full state honours were accorded as Ajit Pawar's mortal remains were taken to the Vidya Pratishthan ground for the last rites.
Ajit Pawar's wife, Sunetra Pawar, and sons, Parth and Jay and other family members were present. Senior Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, along with his daughter Praniti Shinde, also arrived to attend the funeral.
Supporters of Ajit Pawar chanted "Ajit Dada Amar Rahe" as his mortal remains were brought to the ground.
Ajit Pawar was killed in a plane crash on January 28 in Maharashtra's Baramati.
According to DGCA, five people, including the crew, on board the chartered plane flying from Mumbai, Maharashtra, to Baramati, died after a crash-landing occurred at the runway threshold in Baramati.
Notably, his wife Sunetra Pawar stepped into fill the vacant post of Deputy Chief Minister. With this, Sunetra Pawar becomes the first woman Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Sunetra Pawar has been allocated the portfolios of State Excise Duty, Sports and Youth Affairs and Minorities Development and Aukaf.
Ajit Pawar was the longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He served in the position for six terms within various governments. He had worked as Deputy Chief Minister in the cabinets of Prithviraj Chavan, Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde.