Sharad Pawar (born 12 December 1940) is an Indian politician who founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999. He was Chief Minister of Maharashtra four times, first at the age of 37, and served as India’s Defence Minister and Agriculture Minister. Known as a skilled negotiator with friends in every party, he has also headed Indian and world cricket as president of the BCCI and the ICC. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2017.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar |
| Born | 12 December 1940, Baramati, Pune district, Maharashtra, India |
| Age | 85 |
| Party | Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) |
| Offices | Chief Minister of Maharashtra (four terms); Defence Minister (1991–1993); Agriculture Minister (2004–2014) |
| Education | Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, Pune |
| Spouse | Pratibha Pawar (m. 1967) |
| Children | 1 (Supriya Sule) |
| Honour | Padma Vibhushan (2017) |
Early Life
Pawar was born in Baramati to Govindrao Pawar, who worked in a farmers’ cooperative, and Shardabai, who was elected to the district local board. He was active in student politics in Pune and was taken under the wing of Yashwantrao Chavan, Maharashtra’s first Chief Minister.
Political Career
He was elected to the state assembly from Baramati in 1967, aged 26. In 1978 he broke with the Congress government, formed a coalition and became Chief Minister at 37, the youngest in the state’s history. He returned to the Congress in 1986 and was Chief Minister again from 1988.
Pawar was Defence Minister under P. V. Narasimha Rao from 1991 and went back to Mumbai as Chief Minister after the riots and bomb blasts of 1993. In 1999 he, P. A. Sangma and Tariq Anwar were expelled from the Congress for objecting to the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi as a possible Prime Minister, and they founded the NCP. The party nevertheless allied with the Congress, and Pawar was Minister of Agriculture and Food in Manmohan Singh‘s government for ten years.
In 2019 he put together the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress in Maharashtra. In July 2023 his nephew Ajit Pawar split the NCP and joined the BJP-led government; the Election Commission awarded the party name and symbol to Ajit’s group, and Sharad Pawar’s faction took the name NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).
Cricket
Pawar was president of the Mumbai Cricket Association, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India from 2005 to 2008 and president of the International Cricket Council from 2010 to 2012.
Personal Life
Pawar married Pratibha Shinde in 1967. Their daughter, Supriya Sule, is a Member of Parliament for Baramati. He was treated for oral cancer in 2004. His institutions in Baramati run schools, colleges and agricultural research.
Offices Held
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Sharad Pawar born?
Sharad Pawar was born on 12 December 1940 in Baramati, Pune district, Maharashtra, India and is 85 years old.
Featured image: Sharad Pawar, then Union Agriculture Minister, speaks at the inauguration of a fruit and vegetable summit in New Delhi, May 2008. Photo by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
