India
from Congress, called Congress(S), returned to the parent party in 1986 at an event in Aurangabad in the presence of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Updated : Feb 22, 2017, 04:51 PM IST
from Congress, called Congress(S), returned to the parent party in 1986 at an event in Aurangabad in the presence of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Since his maiden Lok Sabha poll victory in 1984, Pawar has remained a key player in national politics. His prime ministerial ambitions, however, were cut short as Congress chose P V Narasimha Rao for the post, after the elections that followed the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991.
During the first NDA regime, Pawar headed the joint parliamentary committee probing higher amount of pesticide content in soft drinks in 2003.
A Padma Vibhushan awardee, Pawar has always maintained cordial relations with leaders cutting across political divides, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many top leaders from the Left, right and the Centre.
In 1991, Pawar became Defence Minister in the Narasimha Rao Cabinet.
No stranger to controversies, he was once accused of ferrying alleged aides of Dawood Ibrahim in his official plane.
During Pawar's last stint as Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mumbai was rocked by serial bomb blasts in March, 1993 followed by the Gowari stampede in 1994 in Nagpur.
After parting ways with Sonia Gandhi over the foreign origin issue, Pawar in 1999 formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). His party, however, struck alliance with Congress and ruled Maharashtra for 15 years till the BJP-led government came to power in 2014.
In 2014, Pawar got elected to the Rajya Sabha while his daughter Supriya contested and won from her father's pocket borough Baramati Lok Sabha seat the same year.
Pawar has also occupied key positions on the cricket board, including that of BCCI and ICC President, besides other sports associations.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)