Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar (born 12 December 1940) is an Indian politician who has served as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha since 2014. Prior to 2014 he served as a member of Lok Sabha, as a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). He has served four terms as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra including (1990–1991): Following the 1990 assembly elections, he continued his leadership as Chief Minister, and held cabinet positions in the Union Council of Ministers, including the Minister of Defence under P. V. Narasimha Rao government and the Minister of Agriculture under Manmohan Singh government. In 1999, he founded the NCP following a split from the Indian National Congress. In July 2023, following a split within the NCP, he now leads the Sharadchandra Pawar faction. Pawar has been involved in several coalition governments and political alliances in Maharashtra.
Born in Baramati, Maharashtra, Sharadchandra is the patriarch of the Pawar family, which includes several political figures, including his daughter Supriya Sule, nephew Ajit Pawar (former Deputy CM of Maharashtra), and grandnephew Rohit Rajendra Pawar.
Pawar served as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 2005 to 2008 and of the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2010 to 2012. He also headed the Mumbai Cricket Association from October 2013 to January 2017. He received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour, in 2017.
Sharad Pawar is one of ten children born to Govindrao and Shardabai Pawar, a middle-class agricultural family in Baramati. He completed his secondary education at Maharashtra Education Society's High School receiving a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, Pune.
Sharad Pawar completed his education up to the 10th standard (SSC) under the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education at Maharashtra Education Society's High School in Baramati.
Pawar married Pratibhatai Pawar (née Shinde), daughter of cricketer Sadashiv Shinde, in 1967. Their daughter, Supriya Sule, represents the Baramati constituency in the 18th Lok Sabha and serves as the working president of the Nationalist Congress Party.
Several members of the Pawar family have held political roles within the government of Maharashtra. The family has two Members of Parliament and two Members of the state Legislative Assembly. Among them, Ajit Pawar was the deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Pratap Pawar (younger brother), is chairman and managing director of the Marathi daily newspaper Sakal. Pawar’s nephew, Ajit Pawar, served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra a record six times. He died in a plane crash in Baramati on 28 January 2026. Following Ajit Pawar's death, his widow and Rajya Sabha MP, Sunetra Pawar, was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on 31 January 2026. Rohit Rajendra Pawar, Pawar's grand-nephew, represents the Karjat Jamkhed Assembly constituency in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha.
Pawar began his political career in 1956, organising a protest march for Goan Independence in Pravaranagar. Although his older lawyer brother belonged to the Peasants and Workers Party, Pawar preferred the Congress Party and joined the Youth Congress in 1958. He later became the president of the Poona district (now Pune district) Youth Congress in 1962, and by 1964 had become one of two secretaries of the Maharashtra Youth Congress.
In 1967, Pawar was nominated as the candidate for the Baramati constituency of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly over more established members by the undivided Congress Party. He won the election and represented the constituency from 1967 to 1990. In 1969, when the Congress Party split after the 1969 Indian presidential election, he opted for the Congress (R) faction led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, along with his mentor Yashwantrao Chavan.
As the MLA from Baramati in the early 1970s, he oversaw the building of percolation tanks during a severe drought in Maharashtra. He was also heavily involved in the politics of the local cooperative sugar mills and other member-run cooperative societies.
In the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress Party, under Indira Gandhi, lost power to the Janata Alliance. Taking responsibility for the loss of a large number of seats in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Shankarrao Chavan resigned shortly afterwards and was replaced by Vasantdada Patil. Later that year, the Congress Party split again, with Pawar's mentor, Yashwantrao Chavan, joining one faction, Congress (U), and Indira Gandhi leading her faction, Congress (I). Pawar joined the Congress (U) faction. In the state assembly elections held early in 1978, the two Congress parties ran separately but then allied to keep power for Vasantdada Patil. This was in response to the rise and success of the Janata Party, which emerged as the minority government after the election. Pawar served as Minister of Industry and Labour under the Patil government.
In July 1978, Pawar broke away from the Congress (U) party to form a coalition government with the Janata Party. In the process, at the age of 38, he became the youngest Chief Minister of Maharashtra. This Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) government was dismissed in February 1980, following Indira Gandhi's return to power.
In the 1980 elections, Congress (I) won the majority in the state assembly, and A.R. Antulay took over as Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Pawar took over the presidency of his own Congress (S) party in 1983. For the first time, he won the Lok Sabha election from the Baramati parliamentary constituency in 1984. He also won the state assembly election of March 1985 from Baramati and preferred to return to state politics, resigning his Lok Sabha seat. Congress (S) won 54 seats out of 288 in the state assembly, and Pawar became the leader of the opposition of the Progressive Democratic Front coalition, which included the BJP, PWP, and the Janata Party.
In 1987 he returned to Congress (I) assisting the rise of the Shiv Sena during that period. At the time, Pawar stated that his decision was driven by "the need to save the Congress Culture in Maharashtra". In June 1988, Pawar was chosen to replace Chavan as the Chief Minister. Pawar had the task of checking the rise of the Shiv Sena in state politics, which was a potential challenge to the dominance of the Congress in the state. In the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, Congress won 28 seats out of 48 in Maharashtra.
Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during his 1991 election campaign, the Congress Parliamentary Party (party MPs) unanimously elected P.V. Narasimha Rao as their leader, who was sworn in as prime minister on 21 June 1991. Rao named Pawar as the defence minister, a position he held until March 1993. After Pawar's successor in Maharashtra, Sudhakarrao Naik, stepped down following the Bombay riots, Pawar was sworn in again as chief minister for his fourth term on 6 March 1993. Almost immediately, Mumbai experienced a series of bomb blasts on 12 March 1993. Pawar's response to the blasts attracted controversy. In a 2006 speech, Pawar stated that he had reported thirteen blasts instead of twelve during the 1993 bombings to include a Muslim-majority area, citing a desire to prevent communal tension. He attempted to justify this deception by claiming that it was a move to prevent communal riots, by falsely portraying that both the Hindu and Muslim communities in the city had been adversely affected. He additionally admitted to lying about evidence recovered and misleading people into believing that it pointed to the Tamil Tigers as possible suspects.
In 1993, the Deputy Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, G. R. Khairnar, made a series of accusations against Pawar for being involved in corruption and protecting criminals. Though Khairnar could not produce any evidence in support of his claims, it inevitably affected Pawar's popularity. Notable social worker Anna Hazare started a fast-unto-death to demand the expulsion of 12 officers of the Maharashtra state forest department who had been accused of corruption. The opposition parties accused Pawar's government of trying to shield the corrupt officers.