How new Maharashtra BJP chief Ravindra Chavan, Fadnavis loyalist with RSS roots, could rattle Shinde Sena
A day ago, he filed nominations at a function in the Mumbai state BJP office, where the central BJP observer cum Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were in attendance Monday.
Mumbai: Mumbai: Four-term MLA from Dombivali Ravindra Chavan was elected unopposed to the post of BJP Maharashtra state president Tuesday.
Chavan, the party's main Maratha face in Thane district, often gets credit for its expansion in Thane, a Shiv Sena stronghold.
The MMR elections, including the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) and Thane Municipal Corporation polls, are expected to happen by this yearend.
In 2024 state polls, Ravindra Chavan won the Dombivali assembly constituency, which falls under the Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency, with a vote margin of over 77,000, higher than that of the winners from the five remaining assembly seats within the Kalyan LS.
'His appointment is quite strategic because of the upcoming MMR polls. There are many corporations in this region, and with Chavan hailing from the district, a Shiv Sena stronghold, it is important for the BJP to keep the Sena in control and give its candidate the edge,' said political analyst Hemant Desai to ThePrint.
'Besides, Chavan is a Maratha, and since the party already had an OBC face in (ex-chief) Bawankule, it went back to a Maratha face again. Additionally, Chavan's organisational strength and grassroots connections in Konkan are strong. So, the BJP could secure a good chunk of urban voters with Chavan's appointment,' Desai added.
The three-year tenure of the current state chief, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, will end this coming August.
ThePrint contacted Ravindra Chavan for a comment, but he was unavailable at the time. The report will be updated once he responds.
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Who is Ravindra Chavan
Ravindra Chavan has been a long-time member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. From Dombivali, an RSS stronghold, he has been politically active for the last 25 years.
Fondly known as 'Ravi Dada', Ravindra Chavan was appointed president of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha in the Kalyan sub-district in 2002.
In 2005, he became a corporator of the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation and later the standing committee chairman in 2007.
In 2009, during the carving out of the Dombivali constituency ahead of the assembly elections, Chavan won the new seat by 61,000 votes, at a time when Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) swept polls.
Since then, he has been the MLA of Dombivali, with his current term the fourth as representative of the constituency.
During this period, his closeness to Fadnavis grew. In his first term as chief minister, Fadnavis allowed Chavan to become a minister of state in 2016 during a cabinet reshuffle. He oversaw the municipal corporations in the MMR region while serving as guardian minister of the Raigad and Palghar districts in the Shiv Sena stronghold Konkan.
It was during his stint as guardian minister that Ravindra Chavan worked hard to provide the BJP a solid foothold in the Konkan division.
'He has worked very hard in Konkan, and today, because of him only, the BJP is stronger in Konkan. You could see that in the last assembly results,' said a BJP leader to ThePrint. During the 2024 assembly elections, the BJP won 35 of the 39 seats it contested in the Konkan division.
Ravindra Chavan's ascent continued when he took the position of BJP Maharashtra state general secretary in 2020.
Chavan took charge of the Public Works Department (PWD) as minister during the previous Shinde-led government, while serving as the guardian minister again, but of the Palghar and Sindhudurg districts in Konkan this time.
BJP functionaries, of late, have started calling him a Savarkar devotee. In May 2023, Ravindra Chavan was instrumental in helping inaugurate a bust of Veer Savarkar in Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius.
'In the last 11 years in Dombivali, he also made sure that Savarkar's ideology remains alive through a programme, 'Jyot', at Savarkar Udyan,' said a BJP functionary.
Since January 2025, Chavan has also been the working chief of the Maharashtra BJP unit.
Following his appointment last month as chief of All India Workers and Employees Union (AIWEU), Ravindra Chavan received felicitations at an event attended by 1,500 workers from various political affiliations and unions, including those affiliated with the BJP.
At the function, Chavan said, 'I have worked at the grassroots as an ordinary BJP worker. From that experience, I learned that labour demands are simple, yet they often go unheard because leaders lack the will to solve them. But the BJP is different. Its ideology is rooted in reaching the last person in society.'
'Chavan is a strong and direct man. He does not normally mince his words, and he has a good backing of the RSS and Fadnavis, which will help keep both allies and opposition under control,' analyst Desai said.
The first induction into the Congress party under the leadership of Ravindra Chavan was that of ex-MLA Kunal Patil. On Tuesday, Kunal, the son of the late Congress stalwart Rohidas Patil, switched to the BJP.
Also Read: Shinde & Thackeray revive Shiv Sena's classic 'Marathi manus, sons of soil' pitch ahead of BMC polls
Ravindra Chavan vs Shiv Sena
Despite being from Thane and the BJP's alliance with the Shiv Sena, the tussle between Ravindra Chavan and the Shiv Sena leaders in the district is hard to ignore.
Ahead of the 2022 Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) polls, the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena exchanged barbs and flung mud at each other. The BJP improved its tally in KDMC but failed to do so in the Thane Municipal Corporation.
Last year, though Chavan denied rifts with the Shiv Sena while speaking to ThePrint, he announced that the party had set its eyes on a BJP mayor in KDMC.
Things went further south between the two allies in the Konkan over the Mumbai-Goa Highway. Last year, Ramdas Kadam, a Shiv Sena leader from the Eknath Shinde camp and hailing from the Konkan region as well, called Ravindra Chavan a 'useless minister' over the constant delays in the construction of the Mumbai-Goa highway. Blaming then-PWD minister Chavan for the delay, Kadam called out his incompetence, as well as the slow progress of the highway construction work.
In a sharp retort, Ravindra Chavan then publicly called Kadam an 'illiterate man'.
Kadam's remarks did not go down well with Fadnavis, who then spoke with Shinde, asking him to rein in Kadam.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also Read: Solo or together? The big question for Maharashtra alliances this BMC poll season
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