India, Jan. 28 -- Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's death in a plane crash, in his hometown Baramati in Pune district on Wednesday morning, brought back to memory one the most prominent of such tragedies - the 1980 death of Sanjay Gandhi.

Ajit's death gravely impacts Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Shard Pawar, who faction and the original NCP currently with Ajit were planning a reunion. While Ajit Pawar was with BJP-led Mahayuti ever since he split the NCP in 2023, there were plans in the works for a patch-up, evident in their alliance for the recent civic polls in Maharashtra.

Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi, who was the son of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, too died in a plane crash in June 1980 at a time of...