Pune: Baramati MP Supriya Sule on Wednesday said the final rites of her cousin, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, would be performed at the sports ground of Vidya Pratisthan in Baramati around 11am on Thursday.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah will attend the funeral,” a senior police officer told TOI. All state ministers and MLAs are expected to be present.Ajit Pawar was killed on Wednesday morning after a private aircraft he was travelling on crashed near the Baramati airstrip, around 100km from Pune. Four others — two pilots, a flight attendant and a personal security officer — were also killed in the accident occurred at 8.44am.The mortal remains of Ajit Pawar were first taken the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Hospital in Baramati and later to Vidya Pratisthan where family members and several politicians paid their last respects. Among them were Ajit Pawar’s sons Parth and Jay, Supriya, Yugendra Pawar and Rohit Pawar, besides former Union minister Praful Patel, state minister Chhagan Bhujbal, Babasaheb Patil and Neelam Gorhe.On Wednesday night, the mortal remains were again taken to hospital. A small procession will be taken out on Thursday morning and the mortal remains will reach the sports ground by 10am, officials said.Earlier in the day, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy CM Eknath Shinde visited the hospital and spoke to Ajit Pawar’s family members.Around 10,000 people gathered around the hospital in the afternoon and raised slogans, “Ekach wada Ajitdada, amar rahe amar rahe, Ajitdada amar rahe.”Sandhya Kale from Baramati told TOI: “Ajitdada was close to my family. He visited my home on a few occasions and he resolved all our problems, including my daughter’s school admission.”Ajit Pawar’s personal driver, Shyamrao Narayan Manave (71), who is from Baner, said: “We were in the Mumbai house. Dada woke up around 6am and called me and the other driver. He asked me to come to Pune where he was supposed to address some rallies in Baramati. He left home around 7.30am.”He added: “Dada was a man of his word. Since 1999, I have been working for him. He always chatted with me on different topics.” Manave said that in 2013, his son got married in his hometown Satara, and Ajit Pawar attended it as promised. “He also visited my house in Baner.”“After learning about the crash on Wednesday morning, I immediately drove to Baramati,” he said, adding: “I lost a piece of my heart today.”Pune rural police have called additional manpower from Solapur, Pune city, and Satara police stations for bandobast on Thursday.
