Lok Sabha MP and senior BJP leader Girish Bapat (Twitter/@harshvardhanpatil) Girish Bapat, considered the most powerful face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Pune, died on Wednesday due to prolonged illness. He was 73 years old.
Bapat breathed his last at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune where he was being treated for breathing-related issues.
An MP from Pune City, Bapat was credited with strengthening the party base in the district.
Bapat was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 general elections. Prior to that, he was elected to state Legislative Assembly for five times consecutively, from 1995 to 2014, from Kasba Peth seat. He was a state minister in BJP-led government from 2009 to 2014 under then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
A staunch karykarta of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bapat was in jail for 19 months during the Emergency. He also worked as a labourer in Telco company where he was an active Union member.
Bapat entered politics in the 1980s and was elected to Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) as a corporator in his first attempt in 1983. He was elected a corporator three times in a row before being elected as an MLA from Kasba Assembly constituency.
After he won the Lok Sabha election from Pune city in 2019, the Kasba Assembly seat was won by Mukta Tilak who died in December last year. In the ensuing by election, the BJP lost the seat to the Congress. During the campaign, Bapat, despite his illness, was seen on a stage on a wheelchair with oxygen pipe. The BJP drew criticism for involving an ailing Bapat in the keenly fought contest.
As he was undergoing treatment, several senior politicians including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis visited him to inquire about his health. Union Home Minister Amit Shah called on Bapat last month.
On Wednesday evening, Bapat was given a sombre farewell with political leaders across party lines paying their last respects.
Maharashtra government gave Bapat state funeral with full honours.
Shinde, Fadnavis, Pune’s guardian minister Chandrakant Patil, minister Tanaji Sawant, BJP MLAs Madhuri Misal and Bhimrao Tapkir, former Pune mayor Muralidhar Mohol, BJP city chief Jagdish Mulik and former minister Pankaja Munde were some of the leaders who paid their respects to Bapat. From Opposition parties, NCP’s Sharad Pawar and Vandana Chavan, newly elected Congress MLA from Kasba Ravindra Dhangekar, former Pune mayor Dipti Choudhari and Congress leader Pooja Anand also bid farewell to the leader.
Several citizens of Pune also attended the farewell.
BJP state chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said Bapat was a leader who had risen from the ranks and kept his ground connect intact. “His astute understanding of politics and people’s need was always something to be emulated by other,” he said. NCP chief Pawar talked about Bapat’s “good relations” with all party leaders. Fadnavis said Bapat was a leader with no enemies.