Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar is an Indian politician. He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for four terms and has also served in the Union Council Of Ministers as the Minister of Defence in the Cabinet of P.V Narsimha Rao and Minister of Agriculture in the Cabinet of Manmohan Singh. He is the first and former president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP),which he founded in 1999,after separating from the Indian National Congress. His NCP was split by his nephew,Ajit Pawar. He leads his faction of the NCP delegation in the Rajya Sabha,the upper chamber of the Indian parliament. He is the chairperson of Maha Vikas Aghadi,a regional Maharashtra-based political alliance.
The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the state parties in India. It refers to the Ajit Pawar faction after the 2023 split in the party when the Supreme Court of India granted the original party name and symbol to the Nationalist Congress Party. It was one of the major political parties in Maharashtra and was a recognised state party in Nagaland and Kerala. In July 2023,majority of the elected MLAs and MLCs of the party led by Ajit Pawar joined the National Democratic Alliance government,however,all MPs except two remained loyal to Sharad Pawar. This caused a direct split between the Ajit Pawar-led faction and the founder and president Sharad Pawar who formed the Nationalist Congress Party after EC recognised the Ajit Pawar faction as the original party.
The National Democratic Alliance is a conservative Indian political alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded on 15 May 1998 and currently controls the government of India as well as the government of 19 Indian states and one Union territory.
Kirit Somaiya is an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party who represented Mumbai North-East in the 16th Lok Sabha and the 13th Lok Sabha. He is currently appointed as the vice president of Bharatiya Janata Party's Maharashtra unit.
The Peasants and Workers Party of India (PWP) is a Marxist political party in Maharashtra,India. The party was founded in 1948,having its roots from the pre-Independence period and has around 10,000 members. The influence of the party is largely limited to three districts. The party was founded in Maharashtra by Keshavrao Jedhe of Pune,Shankarrao More,Bhausaheb Raut of Mumbai,Nana Patil of Satara,Tulshidas Jadhav of Solapur,Dajiba Desai of Belgaum,Madhavrao Bagal of Kolhapur,P K Bhapkar and Datta Deshmukh of Ahmednagar,Vithalrao Hande and others.
Shankersinh Vaghela is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Gujarat from. He was also the Leader of Opposition in 13th Gujarat Legislative Assembly.
Shriniwas Dadasaheb Patil is an Indian politician and ex-officer of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). Since October 2019,he is the Member of Lok Sabha from the Satara constituency from Maharashtra,India.
Bhagat Singh Koshyari is an Indian politician who served as the 22nd governor of Maharashtra from 2019 to 2023. An RSS veteran,Koshyari served as National Vice-President of BJP and party's 3rd State president for Uttarakhand. He also served as 2nd Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2001 to 2002 and thereafter,was the leader of the opposition in the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly from 2002 to 2003. He also served as an MLC in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and MLA in Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly. He later served as an MP in Rajya Sabha from 2008 to 2014 from Uttarakhand and then the MP in the 16th Lok Sabha from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar constituency,earning him the distinction of being elected in both houses of State Legislature and both houses of National Parliament respectively.
Ajit Anantrao Pawar is an Indian politician who is currently serving,alongside Devendra Fadnavis,the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2 July,2023. He served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 2022 to 2023,and was a Member of the Parliament in the Lok Sabha in 1991,representing Baramati constituency. He has also been a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly since 1991,representing Baramati constituency.
Ashok Shankarrao Chavan is an Indian politician from Maharashtra. He is son of ex-Maharashtra Chief Minister Shankarrao Chavan. He was one of the most influential leaders of Indian National Congress in Maharashtra but later resigned and joined Bhartiya Janata Party on 13 Feb 2024. He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state from 8 December 2008 to 9 November 2010. Also,he has served as Minister for Cultural Affairs,Industries,Mines and Protocol in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government and he is also the former PWD Minister of Maharashtra.
Maharashtra is India's third largest state by area and has over 112 million inhabitants. Its capital,Mumbai,has a population of approximately 18 million;Nagpur is Maharashtra's second,or winter,capital. Government in the state is organized on the parliamentary system. Power is devolved to large city councils,district councils,subdistrict (taluka) councils,and village parish councils. The numerically strong Maratha–Kunbi community dominates the state's politics. The state has national and regional parties serving different demographics,such as those based on religion,caste,and urban and rural residents.
The Indian state of Maharashtra has a bicameral legislature,comprising two houses. The lower house,known as the Legislative Assembly,is directly elected by the people and is the more powerful of the two houses. The upper house,known as the Legislative Council is elected indirectly by several specially designated electorates.
The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Maharashtra state in western India. It consists of 288 members directly elected from single-seat constituencies. The Assembly meets at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai,though the winter session is held in Nagpur. Along with the Maharashtra Legislative Council,it comprises the legislature of Maharashtra. The presiding officer of the Assembly is the Speaker. Members of the Assembly are directly elected by the people of Maharashtra through elections held every five years,unless the Assembly is dissolved earlier. The current Assembly was elected in October 2019.
Although a parliamentary democracy,Indian politics has increasingly become dynastic,possibly due to the absence of a party organization,independent civil society associations that mobilize support for the party,and centralized financing of elections. Family members have also led the Congress party for most of the period since 1978 when Indira Gandhi floated the then Congress(I) faction of the party. It also is fairly common in many political parties in Maharashtra. The dynastic phenomenon is seen from national level down to district level and even village level.The three-tier structure of Panchayati Raj established in the 1960s also helped to create and consolidate the dynastic phenomenon in rural areas. Apart from government,political families also control cooperative institutions,mainly cooperative sugar factories,district cooperative banks in the state,and since the 1980s private for profit colleges. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party also features several senior leaders who are dynasts. In Maharashtra,the NCP has particularly high level of dynasticism.
Sameer Dattatraya Meghe is a member of the 13th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and represents the Hingna constituency.
Sujay Vikhe Patil is an Indian politician and was a member of the 17th Lok Sabha,representing Ahmednagar constituency,Maharashtra. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He contested his first election of his political career in 2019 of Lok Sabha and he was elected by huge voting margin of 2,81,526 votes against NCP candidate. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,he was defeated by Nilesh Lanke of NCP-Sharad Pawar.
Shivendra Raje Bhosale is an Indian politician and a member of Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a descendant of Chatrapati Shivaji,founder of the Maratha Empire. He is heir to the Satara royal family.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi or Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi,is a state-level political coalition formed after the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray of SHS (UBT),Sharad Pawar of the NCP and Sonia Gandhi of the INC,along with the support from the Samajwadi Party,PWPI,CPI(M) and several other political parties including Independent MLAs. MVA is currently the official opposition in Maharashtra Legislature.
Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad is an Indian politician and retired pediatric surgeon. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party,and serves as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. He was the Mayor of Aurangabad twice. Karad became a Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in the reshuffle of Prime Minister Modi's cabinet in the second term.
Dushyant Kumar Gautam is an Indian politician. He is a National General Secretary of the Bhartiya Janata Party. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha the upper house of Indian Parliament from Haryana as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has been associated with the SC Morch of the BJP for quite a long time. He has also contested MCD and Delhi assembly unsuccessfully in the past. He served the remaining 2.5 years term during 2020-2022 of former INLD leader Ram Kumar Kashyap who resigned after being elected an MLA from Indri constituency of Karnal district in Haryana.
