Pawar turns 79, greetings pour in from NCP's rank and file

NCP chief Sharad Pawar turned 79 on Thursday and several party leaders and workers from across Maharashtra thronged the city to greet him on his birthday.

Pawar met the party workers at the Y B Chavan Centre here in the morning.

NCP Lok Sabha member and Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule took to Twitter to extend good wishes to him.

"Dear Baba, you are a constant source of energy for us. You gave us the bright legacy of ideology and also the strength to tread on it..Baba, boundless birthday greetings to you. Wishing you long healthy life," she tweeted in Marathi.

NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik also posted a message on the micro-blogging site to wish Pawar.

"Birthday greetings to the architect of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, president of Nationalist Congress Party Honourable Shri Sharadchandra Pawar Saheb," Malik tweeted.

The Maratha strongman, born on December 12, 1940 at Baramati in Pune district, is credited for the NCP's return to power in the state along with the Congress and their new ally Shiv Sena by forming the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government last month.

The party has already declared that it will hand over cheques worth Rs 80 lakh to Pawar for distributing the fund to farmers hit by untimely rains.

The NCP was virtually staring at an existential crisis in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly polls, held in October this year, as several of its leaders jumped the ship to join the BJP and Shiv Sena.

The Pawar-led party, however, won 54 seats - 13 more than its 2014 poll tally - in the elections and later went on to form government in the state after the Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP.

The NCP has credited Pawar for playing a pivotal role in improving its tally of seats and formation of the MVA government.