During the course of the 1991 election campaign , former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated . There were reports in the media that Pawar 's name was being considered for the prime minister 's post , along with those of P.V. Narasimha Rao and N.D. Tiwari , in the event of a Congress victory . However the Congress Parliamentary Party ( party MPs ) elected P.V. Narasimha Rao as their leader , and he was sworn in as prime minister on 21 June 1991 . Rao named Pawar as defence minister . On 26 June 1991 , Pawar took over that portfolio , and held it until March 1993 . After Pawar 's successor in Maharashtra , Sudhakarrao Naik , stepped down after the disastrous handling of the Bombay riots , Rao asked Pawar to serve again as chief minister of the state . Pawar was sworn in as chief minister for his fourth term on 6 March 1993 . Almost immediately , Mumbai was rocked by a series of bomb blasts , on 12 March 1993 . Pawar 's response to the blasts attracted controversy . More than a decade later , Pawar admitted that he had " deliberately misled " people following the bombings , by saying that there were " 13 and not 12 " explosions , and had added the name of a Muslim-dominated locality to show that people from both communities had been affected . He attempted to justify this deception by claiming that it was a move to prevent communal riots , by falsely portraying that both Hindu and Muslim communities in the city had been affected adversely . He also admitted to lying about evidence recovered and misleading people into believing that it pointed to the Tamil Tigers as possible suspects
bomb blasts
1993 Bombay bombings
Sharad Pawar