Fadnavis aide Ram Shinde set to become Legislative Council Chairperson

Mumbai: BJP leader Prof Ram Shinde is set to become the Chairperson of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. 

The 55-year-old is considered close to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Prof Shinde filed the nomination papers before Maharashtra Legislature’s Secretary Jitendra Bhole during the ongoing Nagpur winter session. 

He was accompanied by Fadnavis, Deputy CM and NCP President Ajit Pawar and Minster and state BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Chandrakant Patil and Jaykumar Rawal of BJP and Uday Samant of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. 

His election is now a mere formality. 

Prof Shinde, who belongs to Dhangar community, hails from Ahilyanagar district (earlier)  Ahmednagar). 

A two-time MLA, Prof Shinde had won the Karjat-Jamkhed seat in 2009 and 2014.

From 2014-19, he was a minister in the erstwhile Fadnavis-led BJP-Shiv Sena dispensation. However, in 2019 and 2024, he lost the elections to Rohit Pawar. In 2019, Pawar contested from Sharad Pawar-led undivided NCP and in 2024 from NCP (SP). 

The BJP now has its leaders as the presiding officer of the Assembly and Council. 

Last week, BJP’s Rahul Narwekar, was unanimously elected as Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

The Council Chairperson’s post was vacant for two-and-a-half- years after the retirement of Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar, who then belonged to NCP. 

Over the past two years, Shiv Sena’s Dr Neelam Gorhe, who is the Deputy Chairperson was officiating as Chairperson. 

Among 78 members in the Council,  the BJP has 19 members, Congress 7, Shiv Sena (UBT) 7, Shiv Sena 6, NCP (SP) and NCP 5 each, and there are 3 Independent members.

During the time of power-sharing talks, the Shiv Sena was keen for the post, however, numbers were not in their side. 

“I sincerely thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J P Nadda, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and  Ajit Pawar, BJP State President Chandrashekhar Bawankule as well as all the leaders of NDA and MahaYuti,” Shinde said in a post on X.