Key leader of India's Maharashtra among five dead in air charter crash

Pawar was travelling to campaign in local polls when his charter plane crashed, killing all on board

The deputy chief minister of India's wealthiest state of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, was killed on Wednesday, along with four people on board his charter aircraft that went down in flames, the aviation regulator said.

Pawar, who hailed from a top political family, was en route to his home region to canvass in local body elections, the media said.

Two of his staff and two crew were also aboard the aircraft, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

"No person on board has survived," it added in an initial statement.

Pawar backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in the state government, leading a faction that split in 2023 from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party.

Video showed billows of smoke rising from some of the burning wreckage of the plane, scattered across an open field.

Media said Pawar's aircraft, travelling from the financial capital of Mumbai, tried to make an emergency landing in the family stronghold of Baramati, 250 km (155 miles) away, where he was set to canvass in the elections.