3 min readMumbai, New DelhiJan 29, 2026 11:14 AM IST
First published on: Jan 29, 2026 at 04:20 AM IST
At the NCP party offices, workers stood around in disbelief, breaking down in tears. Their leader — Ajit dada — was gone.
When the news came that NCP chief and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has been killed in a plane crash on Wednesday, several workers and leaders rushed to party offices, while others headed to Baramati where the final rites will be conducted on Thursday. The refrain among party wokers was: “He was always approachable”.
“Even if you had a very local issue, Dada would give you an audience,” says NCP’s Maharashtra general secretary, Surekha Pednekar, who was present at the party office in Raigad.
“I joined politics over 30 years ago and was inspired by his way of working – he always had a plan of action ready… ,” recalls Pednekar. “He remembered names of party workers, did not discriminate based on their experience or designation in the party.”
“It does not feel real. It is not just a loss for the party but every individual worker that he cared for, heard and worked with,” she adds, as banners are brought to the party office to mark the loss, replacing posters of upcoming Zilla Parishad polls.
In New Delhi, workers and leaders started trickling into the party office on 79, North Avenue.
They were heard talking about Pawar’s last visit to the office five months ago.
“We had discussed his plans for the party in Delhi and municipal elections. He had grand plans for expansion of the party in national capital,” says party national general secretary and chief spokesperson Brijmohan Shrivastav. It’s too early to “even think about politics”, he says.
As posters from his birthday celebrations on July 22 last year hang in the background, party leaders have placed a framed photo of him under the tin shade in the courtyard of the party office, where they paid tributes to him.
“We have lost a guardian. I remember once I went ahead to touch his feet, and he told me not to. Instead, he hugged me. He said I was like his brother and and that brothers should hug,” says Virendra Singh, who heads the NCP’s Delhi unit.
Kuldeep K Bujoo, a core committee member of NCP Delhi unit, says, “I can’t believe I won’t see him again.”
The forlorn NCP office in Mumbai on Wednesday. (Ganesh Shirsekar) 
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