India
‘Pray for a long, healthy life’: PM Modi wishes NCP chief Sharad Pawar on his 84th birthday | India News – Times of India
“Birthday Wishes to Rajya Sabha MP and Senior Leader Sharad Pawar Ji. I pray for his long and healthy life,” PM Modi wrote on X.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, also wished NCP chief Sharad Pawar on X.
“Happy birthday to Nationalist Congress Party President (@NCPspeaks), former Union Minister Sharad Pawar. I wish you good health and long life,” Kharge wrote.
Meanwhile, posters with birthday greetings to NCP-SCP chief Sharad Pawar were put up outside his residence in Delhi.
Sharad Pawar, known to the masses as Saheb, was born on December 12, 1940.
Hailing from a family in Baramati, Pune, Pawar entered politics early, becoming president of the State Youth Congress at the age of 24 and a member of the state cabinet five years later.
Out of his 32 years in politics, Pawar has been the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for seven years.
During these years, Maharashtra became and maintained a position as the leading industrial state of the country and also as a state with a highly managed treasury.
Pawar has always stood for a society free from caste and communal prejudices. As Chief Minister, he has consistently encouraged people from different communities living in Maharashtra to develop their special cultural and ethnic identity while contributing to the overall development of the state.
Pawar is an economic liberal and believes that only large-scale investments that lead to rapid economic development and increased employment can make a country a true international power.
Last year in July, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in his party, joined the National Democratic Alliance and took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.
The 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election witnessed a decisive victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance, which secured a landslide victory with 235 seats. The results marked a major milestone for the BJP, which became the largest party with 132 seats. The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party also made notable gains, winning 57 and 41 seats respectively.
The NCP’s ‘bell’ symbol is with the Ajit Pawar group, following a ruling by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in February, recognizing it as the official NCP. On March 19, the Supreme Court allowed the Ajit Pawar faction to use the ‘bell’ symbol, subject to certain conditions, including that his party make a public statement that the use of the ‘bell’ symbol for Lok Sabha and elections before the Maharashtra Assembly is sub-judicial and subject to the outcome of the Sharad Pawar group’s challenge to the ECI’s decision.
It had also asked the Ajit Pawar faction not to use Sharad Pawar’s name and images in its campaign materials. Following a rift between the Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the NCP, the Election Commission of India recognized Ajit Pawar’s party as the real NCP on the basis of its legislative majority and awarded it the ‘bell’ symbol. The Supreme Court had asked the Sharad Pawar faction to use the name of ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Chandra Pawar’ for the upcoming elections and the symbol of ‘man-blowing turha’.
Earlier, the apex court had directed that the Election Commission’s February 7 order assigning ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ as the party name for the Sharad Pawar faction would remain in force until further notice.
