Leaders across parties attend Ajit Pawar’s final rites in Baramati

Maharashtra’s longest-serving Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit.Pawar was given the last rites with full state honours and a 21-gun salute at Vidya Pratishthan grounds in Baramati on Thursday, as tens of thousands of mourners attended the event along with a galaxy of top political figures cutting across party lines, who paid their last tributes.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

Three days of state mourning have been declared across Maharashtra till 30 January, and national flags at all government buildings will fly at half mast.

At the packed Vidya Pratishthan ground in Baramati, the late Ajit Pawar’s sons Parth Pawar and Jay Pawar lit the funeral pyre, as his wife Sunetra, who is an NCP Rajya Sabha member, struggled to hold back her tears, even as the air resonated with chants of “Ajit Dada amar rahe” and “Ajit Dada Parat Ya (come back)”.