Newsmakers of the Week | TMC leader Anubrata Mondal, new Chhattisgarh BJP chief Arun Sao, Rajasthan Cabinet Minister

Trinamool leader and the party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal, who has been evading the CBI’s summons in a cattle smuggling case, was on Thursday taken into custody, allegedly for not cooperating with the central agency. Mondal, popularly called “Kestoda”, is considered among the most trusted aides of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, enjoying more clout and power in the state than ministers and several MLAs. Mondal, who has not contested any election so far, is the TMC’s strategist for Birbhum, preferring to manage the party from behind the scenes. He has been with the TMC since its inception in 1998. Read Sweety Kumari’s report on the TMC strongman and artful dodger now in CBI net.

Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Krishnarao Bawankule

The appointment of Chandrashekhar Krishnarao Bawankule as the president of the Maharashtra BJP is a strategic decision to further consolidate the party’s base amongst OBCs in the state. Bawankule, a native of Vidarbha region, belongs to the Teli community. Bawankule was the Energy Minister in the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government led by Devendra Fadnavis (2014-2019), but in the Assembly elections that followed, he had been denied a ticket to contest. The talk then was that the central leadership was uneasy over corruption issues during his tenure as minister, charges that were denied by Bawankule. Bawankule had kept a low profile after that. But the change now seems to be prompted by the BJP’s realisation of the electoral arithmetic in Vidarbha cotton-growing region, where the party got 15 seats lesser in the 2019 Assembly polls compared to 2014 (a fall from 44 to 29 of the total 62 seats). Read Shubhangi Khapre’s report on the new state BJP chief.

‘Bandra Boy’ Ashish Shelar

A BJP leader dubbed the “Bandra Boy” for making Mumbai his political turf, Ashish Shelar was on Friday brought back by the party as the president of its city unit. The appointment of the 49-year-old, who served as Mumbai BJP president for seven years earlier and was a minister in the 2014-2019 government, sends a clear message on the BJP’s intent regarding the coming elections to the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which has long been controlled by the Shiv Sena. A Mumbaikar, Shelar is set to be pitted against Aaditya Thackeray as BJP hopes to finally wrest BMC.

New Chhattisgarh BJP chief Arun Sao

A year before the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, the BJP has appointed Bilaspur MP Arun Sao to counter the Other Backward Class (OBC) politics of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel who belongs to the OBC Sahu community. Sao replaced tribal leader Vishnudeo Sai at the helm of the state unit. OBCs account for almost 45 per cent of the state’s population and their support for the Congress ensured the party’s victory in the 2018 Assembly polls. At the time, Congress insiders said that Baghel was picked as CM ahead of his party rivals because of his stature as an OBC leader and a party leader pointed out that Chhattisgarh was “an OBC state and the election was swung on OBC votes coming to the Congress”. The party hopes Sao can end Baghel and Congress’s grip on OBC votes. Who is Sao and how did his political journey begin? Read here.

Maharashtra minister Abdul Sattar

Maharashtra MLA Abdul Sattar on Tuesday became only the second Muslim minister — after Danish Ansari in Uttar Pradesh — to be inducted into a BJP-led state government currently in power. Sattar was among the first Sena MLAs to join the incumbent CM’s faction when he rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray. The MLA’s perseverance paid off, with Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis deciding that it made far more political sense to face criticism over Sattar’s inclusion than to rub him the wrong way. Read Zeeshan Shaikh’s report on the Sillod MLA who cut his teeth in politics in the Congress, winning the gram panchayat elections in 1984, and today is the only Muslim face in the Shinde-BJP govt.

Rajasthan Cabinet minister Ramesh Meena 

Ramesh Meena has had a roller-coaster of a ride in politics over the past 14 years. He entered the Rajasthan Assembly for the first time in 2008 after being elected on a BSP ticket, but soon afterwards left to join the Congress and extended support to the Ashok Gehlot-led government. The 59-year-old MLA from Sapotra in Karauli is now the Minister of Panchayati Raj and Rural Development. Over the past few weeks, he has been dealing with a crisis. A large number of sarpanches from across the state have accused the minister of calling them corrupt and there were protests in parts of the state demanding his ouster. Meena has stuck to his guns, claiming that he did not call sarpanches corrupt. Who is Meena, a Sachin Pilot loyalist who is now under fire from his MoS? Read here.