Senior leaders and party workers of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were present at the ceremony. No member of the Pawar family attended the ritual in Haridwar, party sources said.
Ajit Pawar died on January 28 in a chartered aircraft crash near Baramati in Maharashtra. The accident occurred when the aircraft, carrying Pawar and four others, crashed while attempting to land at Baramati Airport. All five occupants—including two pilots, a female crew member, and a security personnel—were killed. CCTV footage later showed the aircraft falling short of the runway before bursting into flames.
According to the NCP, the immersion of Ajit Pawar’s ashes in Haridwar is part of a larger plan to allow supporters across the country to pay their final respects. Party leaders said the ashes will be immersed in major rivers and at prominent religious sites in multiple states over the coming days.
After Haridwar, the ash urn procession will travel to Prayagraj for immersion at the Sangam and to Varanasi’s Manikarnika Ghat in Uttar Pradesh. The journey will then proceed to Patna in Bihar, followed by stops across Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Jharkhand, before concluding in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Mourning meetings and prayer gatherings are scheduled in more than 10 states along the route.
Ajit Pawar’s last rites were performed with full state honours in Baramati earlier this week. His sons, Parth Pawar and Jay Pawar, lit the funeral pyre in the presence of thousands of citizens, party workers, and senior political leaders from across party lines.
In the aftermath of Pawar’s death, Maharashtra witnessed a significant political transition. His wife, Sunetra Pawar, was sworn in as the state’s first woman Deputy Chief Minister. Three days after the tragedy, she was unanimously elected leader of the NCP legislature party. Governor Acharya Devvrat administered the oath of office at Lok Bhavan following her resignation as a Rajya Sabha MP. Sunetra Pawar has since been allocated key portfolios, including State Excise, Sports and Youth Welfare, and Minority Development and Auqaf.
Party leaders said the nationwide immersion programme is intended to honour Ajit Pawar’s public life and political legacy, while uniting supporters in collective remembrance.
