Nagpur: After losing twice in the assembly elections, Abhijit Wanjari of Congress on Friday finally managed to gain entry into the Maharashtra legislature as an MLC from Nagpur division graduates constituency due to his stupendous victory over BJP rival and mayor Sandip Joshi.
Wanjari had contested a bypoll on Congress ticket in 2005 from South Nagpur for the first time and in 2014 from East Nagpur.
After an unexpected win in the graduates constituency election as official candidate of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), an elated Wanjari attributed it to proper planning and coordination between three constituents of MVA along with hard work of his supporters for last one year.
“The party’s move to declare my candidature a year in advance benefited me a lot. All our activists worked extremely hard to register new voters in all the six districts. The voters also trusted us and rewarded us with a victory,” he said.
The son of late MLA Govindrao Wanjari has been active in politics since his college days. While completing his BALLB, he occupied the post of general secretary of National Students Union of India (NSUI) from 1998 to 2002. He was twice elected as Nagpur University’s Senate member on graduates’ constituency seat and went on to become its Management Council member.
“This experience of contesting NU’s preferential pattern of elections helped a lot as I came in contact with many persons in academic circles while campaigning. Before the formation of Gondwana University, I used to visit Chandrapur and Gadchiroli during NU polls.”
Married to Dr Smeetaa, a NU Senate member and English lecturer, Wanjari is also an education baron running 10 colleges under Amar Sewa Mandal Educational Trust. It included engineering, pharmacy, law, management, computer technology, education, science, commerce and arts.
“I was confident about my win as all Congress leaders, MPs and MLAs campaigned for me. I consider myself very lucky in that sense,” said Wanjari who is also a chairman of Govind Urban Credit Cooperative Society.
The newly elected MLC, who is also engaged in social activities under the Govindrao Wanjari Foundation, said the Nagpur results reverberated till Delhi and all polls in future would witness a similar trend of MVA winning by big margins.
After his foray into politics, Wanjari held various posts like former Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress secretary and NSUI Maharashtra Pradesh general secretary. He is also general secretary and spokesperson of Nagpur District Congress Committee and former vice-chairman of MPCC Youth and Sports Cell.
He was appointed as election observer for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar by the party.
“Ever since this MLC seat was formed 58 years ago, it was held by the BJP with voters reposing trust in their ideology. I credit all activists and leaders of three parties who worked hard and turned the tide in my favour,” he said.
About his plans, Wanjari said he will be working on providing employment opportunities to graduates and teachers, and ensure sustainable development for them.