Sudhir Mungantiwar: BJP Heavyweight Eyeing Seventh Win (image: facebook.com/Sudhir.Mungantiwar)

Sudhir Mungantiwar, popularly known as Sudhir Bhau, currently serves as the Forest, Cultural Affairs and Fisheries Minister in the Eknath Shinde-led Maha Yuti government. In the upcoming polls, he is fielding from the Ballarpur seeking his seventh win. He is fielded against Santhosh Singh Rawat of the Congress.

Though Mungantiwar recently contested the Lok Sabha Polls from Chandrapur constituency, he lost the seat by a whopping margin of 2,60,406 votes. Prior to this, even in 1989 and 1991 Lok Sabha polls, Mugantiwar contested unsuccessfully from Chandrapur. Meanwhile, he has been winning assembly elections since 1995.

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Hailing from Vidarbha, Mungantiwar is a six-time legislator – thrice from Chandrapur and thrice from Ballarpur. In the 2019 election, he retained the Ballarpur assembly segment by defeating Congress candidate Dr Vishwas Anandrao Zade by a margin of 33,240 votes.

Mungantiwar began his political career as BJP’s youth wing leader and entails strong RSS background. Counted as one among the top BJP leaders in Maharashtra, he is known in the party circles for his outspoken character which often landed him in controversy.

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Mugantiwar served as the state unit President of BJP in Maharashtra from 2010 to 2013, replacing Nitin Gadkari who was then made National President of the party. He had served as the Cabinet Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection in the Shiv Sena-BJP government from 1995 to 1999. In the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, he handled the ministerial portfolios – Finance and Planning and Forest.

The 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20.  The ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state consists of the BJP, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the opposition, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprises the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). The Maharashtra Assembly elections mark the first after the Shiv Sena and NCP parties split in June 2022 and July 2023, respectively.