India, Jan. 30 -- Thousands of people gathered in Baramati on Thursday to bid farewell to Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, whose sudden death in a plane crash a day earlier plunged the state into mourning. Amid chants of "Ajit dada amar rahe" (long live Ajit dada), the 66-year-old Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief was laid to rest with full state honours at the Vidya Pratishthan college ground.

Pawar's sons, Parth and Jay, lit the funeral pyre as their mother, Sunetra Pawar, a Rajya Sabha member, stood by them, visibly shaken. The atmosphere was charged with emotion as Ajit Pawar's mortal remains, wrapped in the national flag, were brought from his ancestral village, Katewadi, to the funeral venue.

Union home minister ...