Origin of NCP

The day when Shri Sharad Pawar and Shri Tariq Anwar took courage in the Working Committee of the Congress(I) questioning the dynastic and authoritarian style of functioning of the party organisation and the immature handling of the political situation created by the withdrawal of support of BJP Govt. by Jayalalitha was a turning moment in the political history of India. Little did the self-seeking leaders of Congress(I) at that time think that the mass base of the Congress(I) will be eroded , so soon and at such great speed as was seen thereafter. Thousands of Congress workers who were feeling the burden of the yoke of dynastic authoritarianism and the suffocation caused by the lack of internal democracy took this opportunity to throw that yoke away and rally round Pawarji and his colleagues to build up a nationalist democratic and progressive political organisation which will offer a viable national alternative to both communal fascist BJP and the dynastic authoritarian Congress(I).

Formation of the Party : 25th May 1999 is the Red Letter Day for the country. It was on that day Nationalist leaders Shri Sharad Pawar, Shri Tariq Anwar and hundreds of their political supporters assembled at No.6, Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Road, New Delhi and took the historic decision to form a new Political Party under the name 'Nationalist Congress Party'. Shri Sharad Pawar was elected President and Shri Tariq Anwar, General Secretary of that party.

The issue raised by Shri Sharad Pawar and Shri Tariq Anwar that no person of foreign origin shall adorn the highest seats of power like the President of India, Prime Minister, Chief Justice, Chief of Army or Election Commission of our country, though turned down by the coteries that managed the Congress (I) soon it became evidently clear that they only echoed the thinking of the people, whose ancestors with throbbing spirit of nationalism and craze for democracy and equality had sacrificed even their lives in their fight against slavery, political, social and economic. Hundreds of leaders and thousands of workers of Congress all over the country came forward to strengthen the hands of the national leaders and to take up the party organisation work.