Ajit Pawar, the man behind Maharashtra’s budgets and a towering NCP leader, dies at 66 in a plane crash

Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister, has died at 66. He was on board a charter plane that crashed during landing in Baramati. Pawar had a long political career, starting in the cooperative movement and serving as a six-term MLA from Baramati. He held key ministerial portfolios and was a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party.