This is an archive article published on June 10, 2023
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Varsha Gaikwad: Dalit face, Dharavi four-term MLA is first woman president of Mumbai Congress
Varsha Gaikwad's father earlier held the post; she is one of only four Congress MLAs in Mumbai, winning since 2004; now has to revive party fortunes in the city ahead of BMC polls, 2024
Gaikwad is one of only four Congress MLAs in Mumbai, out of 36 seats. She will now be responsible for leading the party into the BMC elections, which are likely to be announced soon, as well as the Lok Sabha polls next year. As of now, the party does not have a single MP from the six Lok Sabha constituencies of Mumbai. File
A FOUR-TERM MLA from Mumbai’s Dharavi constituency, Varsha Gaikwad (48), was on Friday named the new Mumbai Congress chief. She is the first woman president of the party’s Mumbai unit and replaces MLC Bhai Jagtap.
Daughter of the late Eknath Gaikwad, former Mumbai Congress chief and Lok Sabha MP, Varsha made her electoral debut in 2004, winning the Dharavi Assembly seat. Since then, she has never lost the SC-reserved constituency. A prominent Dalit face of the party, Varsha is known for her aggressive speeches.
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This will be the second time that a descendant of a former Mumbai Congress chief has also been named to the post. The late Murli Deora and his son Milind Deora were the earlier pair.
The process of removing incumbent party unit president Bhai Jagtap from the post had begun after the 2022 state Legislative Council polls, in which the Congress’s Chandrakant Handore lost despite being the party’s first choice candidate. The party’s designated second choice candidate, Jagtap, had instead won. A committee under senior party leader Ramesh Chennithala that probed the setback, had filed serious charges against Jagtap over Handore’s loss. The process, however, was delayed after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government fell.
A professor of mathematics at Siddharth College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mumbai, Varsha was the school education minister in the MVA government headed by Uddhav Thackeray. Earlier, she had served as the minister of state for medical education, as well as of higher and technical education, in 2009 under CM Ashok Chavan, and was later given charge of women and child development. Despite the party’s poor performance in Mumbai in the 2014 Assembly polls, she had maintained her winning streak from Dharavi, and won again in 2019.
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Gaikwad is one of only four Congress MLAs in Mumbai, out of 36 seats. She will now be responsible for leading the party into the BMC elections, which are likely to be announced soon, as well as the Lok Sabha polls next year. As of now, the party does not have a single MP from the six Lok Sabha constituencies of Mumbai.
Gaikwad is one of only four Congress MLAs in Mumbai, out of 36 seats. She will now be responsible for leading the party into the BMC elections, which are likely to be announced soon, as well as the Lok Sabha polls next year. As of now, the party does not have a single MP from the six Lok Sabha constituencies of Mumbai. File
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