Mumbai, Jan. 28 -- Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Wednesday penned an emotional post paying tribute to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Ajit Pawar, who lost his life in a plane crash this morning.

Raj Thackeray said that Ajit Pawar was a "remarkably straightforward" leader who was "utterly free of caste bias" and transformed the Pimpri Chinchwad and Baramati region. He added that Maharashtra's politics has lost an outstanding leader.

"Ajit Pawar and I entered politics around the same time, though our acquaintance came much later. But on the strength of his sheer passion for politics, Ajit Pawar took great strides in Maharashtra's political arena. Though Ajit Pawar was a leader forged in the mould of Pawar ...