The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar turns 82 on December 12. Pawar, a four-time chief minister of Maharashtra and a former Union Minister is also known as the architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government comprising of Shiv Sena-Congress and NCP. 

It was in 1956, when Sharad Pawar called for a protest march on Goan Independence in Pravaranagar,Maharashtra. This marked the beginning of Pawar's first such recorded political activism. He joined Youth Congress in 1958 and just four years after joining the party, Pawar went on to become the President of the Pune district Youth Congress. In 1967, when he was only 27-years-old, Pawar was nominated as a candidate for Assembly elections from Baramati constituency in Maharashtra. In 1999, Sharad Pawar along with P A Sangma founded Nationalist Congress Party.