In MVA crosshairs, Neelam Gorhe: Uddhav Sena firebrand and TV face turned rebel

A delegation of MVA legislators also met Governor Ramesh Bais at Raj Bhavan to demand the removal of Gorhe as the Legislative Council Deputy Chairperson.

Gorhe had been a firebrand woman wing leader and spokesperson of the undivided Uddhav-led Sena for two decades.

A women rights activist, Gorhe had started her career with social work in 1987 and entered into politics through the Republican Party of India (led by Prakash Ambedkar).In her early days, Gorhe worked for strengthening of the Dalit movement in Maharashtra and had also contested the Assembly election on the RPI’s ticket.

After a brief stint with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, Gorhe joined the Shiv Sena in 1998 and became a household name in Maharashtra for actively participating in TV debates and presenting the Sena’s views.

In 2002, the Sena first nominated Gorhe to the Legislative Council, where she has continued as a member since. She was named the Deputy Chairperson in 2019, when the MVA government led by CM Uddhav Thackeray was formed.

Gorhe handled the charge of the party’s western Maharashtra chief coordinator besides working as a party whip in the Upper House. She also held the post of the party’s spokesperson and became its prominent face on TV channels with her remarkable oratory skills.

A staunch Shiv Sainik, Gorhe worked in different Sena positions in Vidarbha, Marathwada, Khandesh and Konkan regions of the state besides becoming the party’s Pune district chief. She had also been among the Sena’s “star campaigners” in the elections.

When the Sena-BJP combine came to power in the state in 2014, and later during the MVA government’s tenure, Gorhe’s name was at the forefront of the ministerial hopefuls, but she was not inducted into the ministry on both the occasions.

According to political observers, Gorhe’s defection was an outcome of her ambitions which she thought remained unfulfilled in the Uddhav Sena.

In a recent TV interview after she switched to the Shinde Sena, Gorhe expressed her discontent with the Uddhav Sena, claiming that she was not getting a space to play her part in building the Sena organisation.

“I was asking for time to meet Uddhav Thackeray to discuss the issues of women. I used to message (him) constantly, sometimes I would get a reply and sometimes I didn’t. If eight or ten people had questions, only one would get an opportunity to meet (him). I was tired of all these. It was not possible for me to work with such a leader. In this process I was feeling choked,” Gorhe purportedly said.

She also expressed her resentment for not being given a leadership role in the party. “You (Uddhav) made me the Deputy Chairperson, but you did not feel that you should appoint me as a leader. Well, I was not made a leader, that’s fine, but was there no other woman who could have been appointed as a leader?”she asked in the TV interview. “I had merit, but was still sidelined. Maybe they did not want people with merit and intelligence in the party fold.”