Mumbai: Senior BJP leader Ravindra Chavan is all set to become the next Maharashtra BJP chief as he filed his nomination for the post of party’s state president on Monday. Mr. Chavan presented the nomination forms to Union Minister Kiran Rijiju, who has been appointed as a central observer for the elections by the BJP. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and outgoing party chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule were present on this occasion.
With no other nomination being filed for the post, Mr. Chavan is certain to become the next state president of Maharashtra BJP, said party leaders. The official announcement of his anointment as a party’s state president will be made by Tuesday evening, Devendra Fadnavis said.
Mr. Chavan, who is a four-time MLA from Dombivali constituency, is known as a close aide of Fadnavis. Being a Maratha, he is also expected to put an end to the party’s desperate search for a prominent Maratha leader in the state, said party insiders.
Hailing from Sindhudurg district, Mr. Chavan began his political career in 2007 when he was elected as a corporator in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation. In 2009, he was elected on a BJP ticket from the Dombivali Vidhan Sabha seat. He was re-elected in 2014 and served as a minister of state overseeing various municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, including Kalyan-Dombivli, Mira-Bhayandar and Panvel.
Known for his excellent organisational skills, Mr. Chavan is credited for BJP’s rapid rise in Thane and Raigad districts in the last decade. In 2019, he won his third term as MLA and was credited for playing a major role in the formation of the Eknath Shinde-Fadnavis government in 2022. He was subsequently inducted as a cabinet minister with the PWD portfolio and appointed guardian minister for Sindhudurg.
According to party sources, Mr. Chavan has been elevated as a state party president with an eye on forthcoming civic body elections in Maharashtra. The polls for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other civic bodies, majority of them from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), are expected to go to polls by the year-end. Mr. Chavan’s primary goal will be to end Shiv Sena’s dominance in the MMR region, said a party leader.
