Bawankule appointed new Maharashtra BJP president, Shelar is Mumbai party chief

The change of guard in Maharashtra BJP was necessitated following the induction of outgoing party president Chandrakant Patil in the Cabinet led by Eknath Shinde.

Bawankule was serving as the general secretary in the state organisation. The party’s decision to pick him for the coveted post was to expand and consolidate its outreach within the OBC. Bawankule belongs to the Teli community, which comes under the OBC category.

The three-term MLA from Kamptee constituency in Nagpur district, Bawankule had suffered a major setback when he was denied the ticket for the 2019 Assembly elections. The reason cited was alleged corruption. But later, the central BJP leadership gave its nod to accommodate him in the party organisation as the general secretary.

He later became the Nagpur district chief. He was also a Nagpur Zilla Parishad member before getting elected to the Assembly. A low profile leader, Bawankule won the Legislative Council polls in December 2021.

He is known to be close to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who also hails from Nagpur in Vidarbha.

A senior BJP leader said, “From 2014 to 2022, BJP had two state party presidents – Raosaheb Danve and Chandrakant Patil. Both are from the Maratha community. While Danve represented Marathwada, Patil represented western Maharashtra. Therefore, it was felt that this time, the party should consider a OBC face from Vidarbha.”

The appointment also assumes significance in the face of the Supreme Court scrapping OBC quota in local bodies during the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime.

Speaking to mediapersons at Amravati, Bawankule said he would strive to achieve the target of winning more than 45 seats in the Lok Sabha and 200 out of 288 seats in the Assembly polls in 2024. “I will also strive to make the BJP the number one party in this year’s local body elections,” he added.