Despite suffering a politically debilitating split in the NCP last year, veteran leader Sharad Pawar led from the front in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, where his party won eight of the 10 seats it contested, cementing his position as the tallest politician in the state.
The 83-year-old electoral battle hardened politician is a lynchpin for the anti-BJP opposition alliance at the national level and a key architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the state.
With its performance in the Lok Sabha polls, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) has received a new lease of life in the state, where assembly polls are due in October.
The former Union minister, who has more than 50 years of experience in electoral politics, led the campaign for his party NCP (SP), which fought the polls on a new symbol -- a man blowing turha (a traditional trumpet) -- held strategy meetings and carefully selected candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
The party contested 10 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in alliance with the MVA constituents Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT), and won eight of them on Tuesday. It lost Satara and Raver. But the NCP (SP) candidate gave a tough fight to the BJP rival in Satara. Political analyst Prakash Akolkar said the NCP (SP) has produced an excellent strike rate (winning 8 of 10 Lok Sabha seats it contested) and it only goes to show which is the "real" NCP.