Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya, and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
Credit: PTI Photos
Ajit Pawar was planning to leave the coalition led by Bharatiya Janata Party before his death, West Bengal chief minister and the Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, said, demanding a proper investigation, monitored by the Supreme Court, into the plane crash that killed the deputy chief minister and the leader of the Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday.
The BJP, however, slammed the TMC chief, calling her comment on the death of Ajit Pawar “insensitive”.
Mamata said that she had come across a claim by a leader of another party on a social media platform that Ajit Pawar was ready to leave the Maha Yuti alliance led by the BJP in Maharashtra. “And now what happened today…I need a proper investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Court,” she told journalists, adding: “We only trust the Supreme Court. All the agencies have been totally purchased.”
Ajit Pawar, who had led a revolt against his uncle and then chief of the NCP, Sharad Pawar, in November 2023, had died in a plane crash at Baramati in Maharashtra on Wednesday.
“I was truly shocked to see the news (of Ajit Pawar's death) this morning. It shows that there is no safety or security in this country, even for political leaders,” said the TMC supremo.
“The incident needs proper investigation,” she earlier wrote on X, expressing shock over the sudden demise of Ajit Pawar. “I am feeling a deep sense of loss. My condolences to his family, including his uncle Sharad Pawar ji, and late Ajit Ji's all friends and followers.
She, however, drew flak from the BJP, with Amit Malviya, who oversees the BJP’s Information and Technology department, saying that the chief minister, instead of making insensitive comments on the death of Ajit Pawar, should rather focus on ensuring justice and timely relief for the families of the victims of the fire that devastated a godown and killed at least 19 people near Anandapur in Kolkata recently.
After Sharad Pawar, the uncle of Ajit Pawar and the chief of the NCP (SCP) faction, ruled out any conspiracy and called the plane crash “purely an accident”, Malviya again hit out at Mamata.
“NCP patriarch Shri Sharad Pawar has firmly shut down Mamata Banerjee and others who were trying to manufacture a conspiracy around a tragic incident in Maharashtra involving Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar,” the BJP leader, who also oversees the saffron party’s affairs in West Bengal, posted on X. “Mamata Banerjee’s politics of lies, insinuations, and distraction has a very short shelf life.”