Having lost not even one election in the 45 years of his political career so far, Union minister and veteran politician Sharad Pawar has said he wants to bid adieu to politics now to make way for the younger generation. “It’s enough... It is the responsibility of people like me to encourage younger people and younger leadership to continue to work in (his) political party,” Mr Pawar, the Union agriculture minister, said in a TV interview.
Having won the Lok Sabha elections eight times since he first entered the Indian Parliament in March 1985, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief said he won’t be contesting in the next general polls scheduled in 2014. “I don’t want to contest (the) next Lok Sabha elections because this year I will complete 45 years. I entered politics in 1967 since then continuously I am getting elected... Fortunately I never lost the elections,” he told a channel.
Mr Pawar founded the NCP in 1999 after breaking away from the Congress. He has held the posts of defence minister and has been chief minister of Maharashtra thrice. His daughter Supriya Sule is already in active politics and is Lok Sabha MP from Maharashtra.
His nephew Ajit Pawar is also a prominent politician in the state and is the deputy chief minister of the state.
But the 72-year-old politician said it was unlikely that some one from his family will succeed him as the head of the NCP. “I don’t believe in projecting anybody. The NCP does not believe in dynastic politics. We have a good team in the NCP,” he said.