Career since 2014
In January 2012, Pawar announced that he would not contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, to make way for younger leadership. Currently, he is a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was elected to the body in April 2014 for a six-year term. He lost his ministerial position after the BJP-led NDA defeated the ruling UPA government, in which Pawar was the minister of agriculture, in the 2014 general elections. Pawar's NCP also lost power in Maharashtra after the 2014 assembly elections. The BJP won a plurality of seats in the new assembly and initially formed a minority government with outside support from the NCP. The BJP's estranged ally, the Shiv Sena, later joined the BJP-led government, and that government then did not need the support of the NCP. In May 2017, Pawar ruled out being a candidate for the June 2017 Indian presidential election.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Pawar's NCP and the Congress party had a seat-sharing arrangement. Similarly, despite ideological differences, the BJP and the Shiv Sena once again contested the elections together under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) banner. The election resulted in a landslide victory for Narendra Modi's BJP. Out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, the Congress party won only one seat in the state, whereas the NCP won five seats from its stronghold of western Maharashtra.
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections were followed by elections to the Vidhan Sabha in October 2019. Predictions for the state's ruling BJP–Shiv Sena alliance to win by a large margin led to a steady stream of defections from the NCP to the ruling alliance. Pawar campaigned for the NCP-Congress alliance during the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, during which the alliance increased its seat count compared to the previous election. Against predictions, the actual voting left the ruling alliance with fewer seats than in 2014. Differences between the Shiv Sena and the BJP led to a month of political drama, with Pawar and his family playing a pivotal role. The drama ended with the NCP returning to power on 28 November 2019, as part of a coalition between Shiv Sena, Congress, and the NCP, led by the Shiv Sena chief, Uddhav Thackeray, as the new chief minister of Maharashtra.
In June 2020, Pawar was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Sharad Pawar, the founder and chief of the NCP since 1999, announced his decision to step down from his post and also his unwillingness to contest elections in the future, at the launch of the second edition of his political memoirs 'Lok Maze Sangati' ('People Accompany Me'). Sharad Pawar has had a long period of public life from 1 May 1958 to 1 May 2023.
Sharad Pawar withdrew his decision to step down as national leader of the National Congress Party, citing the "strong sentiments" his resignation had evoked among party workers and leaders across the country. The octogenarian leader clarified that he would focus on assigning new responsibilities through organisational changes and on developing new leadership.
