72 Facts About Sharad Pawar

1.

Sharad Pawar was the first and current president of the Nationalist Congress Party, which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress.

2.

Sharad Pawar leads the NCP delegation in the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Indian parliament.

3.

Sharad Pawar is the chairperson of Maha Vikas Aghadi, a regional Maharashtra-based political alliance.

4.

Outside of politics, Sharad Pawar has served as the Chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI from 2005 to 2008 and as the president of the International Cricket Council from 2010 to 2012.

5.

Sharad Pawar was the president of the Mumbai Cricket Association from October 2013 to January 2017.

6.

Sharad Pawar managed Shahu boarding, a students' hostel, in the 1940s.

7.

Shardabai Sharad Pawar was elected to the district local board three times between 1937 and 1952.

8.

Sharad Pawar looked after the family farm at Katewadi, ten kilometres from Baramati.

9.

Sharad Pawar studied at Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce in Pune.

10.

Sharad Pawar was an average student but active in student politics.

11.

Sharad Pawar's nephew, Ajit Sharad Pawar, is a politician and served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

12.

Sharad Pawar is married to Pratibha, daughter of the test cricketer Sadashiv Shinde.

13.

Sharad Pawar is the oldest and senior most member of Pawar political dynastic family of Maharashtra.

14.

In 1999, Sharad Pawar was diagnosed with oral cancer and had oral surgery in April 2004.

15.

Sharad Pawar's first political activity was when he was a school-going student.

16.

Sharad Pawar organized a protest march for Goan Independence in Pravaranagar in 1956.

17.

Sharad Pawar later became the president of Poona district youth Congress in 1962.

18.

Early in his career, Sharad Pawar was regarded as a protege of Yashwantrao Chavan, a highly influential politician from Maharashtra at that time.

19.

At the young age of 27 in 1967, Sharad Pawar was nominated as the candidate for the Baramati constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly over more established members by the undivided Congress Party.

20.

Sharad Pawar won the election and represented the constituency from 1967 to 1990.

21.

Sharad Pawar served as Minister of Industry and Labour in the Patil government.

22.

In July 1978, Sharad Pawar broke away from the Congress party to form a coalition government with the Janata Party.

23.

Sharad Pawar took over the Presidency of his Indian National Congress Congress party in 1983.

24.

Sharad Pawar won the state assembly election of March 1985 from Baramati and preferred to return to state politics, and resigned his Lok Sabha seat.

25.

Congress, won 54 seats out of 288 in the state assembly, and Sharad Pawar became the leader of the opposition of PDF coalition which included the BJP, PWP, and the Janata party.

26.

Sharad Pawar had stated at the time, "the need to save the Congress Culture in Maharashtra", as his reason for returning to Congress.

27.

In June 1988, Prime Minister of India and Congress President Rajiv Gandhi decided to induct then Maharashtra Chief Minister Shankarrao Chavan into his Union Cabinet as Finance Minister and Sharad Pawar was chosen to replace Chavan as the chief minister.

28.

Sharad Pawar had the task of checking the rise of the Shiv Sena in state politics, which was a potential challenge to the dominance of Congress in the state.

29.

Sharad Pawar was sworn in as chief minister again on 4 March 1990 with the support of 12 independent or unaffiliated members of the legislative assembly.

30.

Also since the Congress contingent from Maharashtra was the largest, Sharad Pawar felt he had a legitimate claim for the post of prime minister.

31.

On 26 June 1991, Sharad Pawar took over that portfolio, and held it until March 1993.

32.

Sharad Pawar was sworn in as chief minister for his fourth term on 6 March 1993.

33.

Sharad Pawar attempted to justify this deception by claiming that it was a move to prevent communal riots, by falsely portraying that both Hindu and Muslim communities in the city had been affected adversely.

34.

Sharad Pawar admitted to lying about evidence recovered and misleading people into believing that it pointed to the Tamil Tigers as possible suspects.

35.

Khairnar made a series of accusations against Sharad Pawar for being involved in corruption and protecting criminals.

36.

Sharad Pawar had to step down and Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi took over as chief minister on 14 March 1995.

37.

Until the Lok Sabha elections of 1996, Sharad Pawar served as the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.

38.

In June 1997, Sharad Pawar unsuccessfully challenged Sitaram Kesri for the post of President of the Indian National Congress.

39.

Sharad Pawar served as Leader of Opposition in the 12th Lok Sabha.

40.

Sharad Pawar did not return to state politics and Vilasrao Deshmukh of Congress was chosen as chief minister, with Chagan Bhujbal representing the NCP as deputy chief minister.

41.

Sharad Pawar retained his portfolio when the UPA coalition government was reelected in 2009.

42.

Sharad Pawar faced several crisis and controversies during his tenure as Agriculture minister.

43.

Sharad Pawar's ministry initiated a series of government inquiries to look into the causes of farmers' suicides in 2012.

44.

In 2013 Sharad Pawar admitted that the suicides was a serious issue with many factors being responsible, and he said the government was increasing investment in agriculture and raising minimum prices of crops to increase farmers' income.

45.

In spite of its known negative health effects, Sharad Pawar made a remark that endosulfan is not yet proved dangerous.

46.

In 2012, Sharad Pawar gave up the chairmanship of the Empowered Group of Ministers investigating the 2G spectrum case, days after his appointment by the prime minister, fearing that his association with the decision-making process would drag him into the 2G Spectrum controversy.

47.

In January 2012, Sharad Pawar announced that he would not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in order to make way for younger leadership.

48.

Sharad Pawar was elected to the body in April 2014 for a six-year term.

49.

Sharad Pawar lost his ministerial position when the BJP-led NDA defeated the ruling UPA government, in which Pawar was the minister of agriculture, in the general elections of 2014.

50.

Sharad Pawar's NCP lost power in Maharashtra after the 2014 assembly elections.

51.

In May 2017, Sharad Pawar ruled out being a candidate for the June 2017 Indian presidential election.

52.

Sharad Pawar was the star campaigner for the NCP-Congress alliance in the state.

53.

Sharad Pawar's campaigning during the assembly election was credited with helping not only the NCP but the leaderless Congress party.

54.

In June 2020, Sharad Pawar was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha.

55.

Sharad Pawar has had a long period of public life from May 1,1960 to May 1,2023.

56.

Sharad Pawar took back his decision to step down as national leader of National Congress Party, citing "strong sentiments" his resignation had evoked among the party workers as well as leaders across the country.

57.

Sharad Pawar has interests in cricket, kabbadi, kho kho, wrestling and football.

58.

Sharad Pawar has served as the head of various sports organisations, including.

59.

Sharad Pawar served as the president of Pune International Marathon Trust, which has hosted Pune International Marathon for last 22 years.

60.

Early in his public career in 1972, Sharad Pawar founded "Vidya pratishthan" for serving the educational needs of the rural poor.

61.

Sharad Pawar is the current president of the century-old educational organisation Rayat Shikshan Sanstha.

62.

Further, Chief Minister Naik alleged that it was possible that Kalani and Hitendra Thakur, another criminal-turned-politician from Virar, had been given tickets to contest election for the Maharashtra State Legislature at the behest of Sharad Pawar, who put in a word for Naik with the police when the latter was arrested for his role in post-Demolition of the Babri Masjid riots in Mumbai.

63.

Sharad Pawar is alleged to have close links with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim through Ibrahim's henchman Lakhan Singh based in the Middle East and close relationship with Shahid Balwa, a suspect in the 2G spectrum case.

64.

Sharad Pawar later revealed that he had lied on purpose, and that there had been only 12 blasts, none of them in Muslim-dominated areas; he confessed that he had attempted to mislead the public into believing that the blasts could be the work of the LTTE, a Sri Lankan militant organization, when in fact intelligence reports had already confirmed to him that Mumbai's Muslim underworld were the perpetrators of the serial blasts.

65.

Sharad Pawar was served a contempt of court notice on 1 May 2008 in connection with this case for issuing statements to the press even though the matter was subjudice at the time.

66.

In 2011, Sharad Pawar declared his assets to be worth 120 million as part of a mandatory disclosure, but his critics claimed that his wealth far exceeded the stated amount.

67.

In 2011, under investigation of the 2G spectrum case Nira Radia told the Central Bureau of Investigation that agriculture minister Sharad Pawar may be controlling the controversial DB Realty.

68.

Sharad Pawar has denied any link with former DB managing director Shahid Balwa who is in CBI custody.

69.

Sharad Pawar is alleged to have demanded compensation for allowing the planned-city Lavasa to be constructed.

70.

When Lavasa Corporation was receiving necessary clearances from the government of Maharashtra, relatives of Sharad Pawar had part-ownership of the company developing the project.

71.

Sharad Pawar was slapped by a youth named Harvinder Singh at the New Delhi Municipal Corporation centre while leaving the premises after attending a literary function on 24 November 2011.

72.

In 2018, Sharad Pawar asked party members to felicitate him with the pagadi of social reformer Mahatma Phule, instead of the usual Puneri Pagadi worn by peshwas of the Maratha Empire.