Two of his staff and two crew were also aboard the aircraft, the directorate general of civil aviation said.
“No person on board has survived,” it added in an initial statement.
Pawar backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the state government, leading a faction that split in 2023 from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party.
Video showed billows of smoke rising from some of the burning wreckage of the plane, scattered across an open field.
Media said Pawar’s aircraft, travelling from the financial capital of Mumbai, tried to make an emergency landing in the family stronghold of Baramati, 250km away, where he was set to canvass in the elections.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/india-ajit-pawar-aircraft-crash-killed-maharashtra-5890461
