Ramdas Athawale

Ramdas Athawale Biography

Ramdas Athawale is a noted Indian politician associated with Bharatiya Janata party government, who currently serves as a parliamentarian since 2014. He is the president of the Republican Party of India (A). He is an elected member of Rajya Sabha since 2014 and currently serves as a minister in the central government led by Narendra Modi. He serves the position of Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment since 5 July 2016. He has earlier served as Lok Sabha MP from Pandharpur. He is also a Trade unionist, and social worker.

Ramdas Bandhu Athawale was born on 25 December 1959 in Agalgaon, Bombay State. His birth place now belongs to Sangli district, Maharashtra. He believes in Buddism. Bandu Bapu and Honsabai Bandu Athawale are his parents. Athawale also had a stint with journalism and writings. He served as the editor of a weekly magazine called Bhumika and is a founder member of Parivartan Sahitya Mahamandal. He is interested in acting as well, and has played brief roles in 2 Marathi films and one Marathi play.

His political career began in the mid-1970s. He was earlier associated with Republican Party of India and Indian national congress. He was a member of Maharashtra Legislative Council from 1990 to 1996, and also served as a cabinet minister. He served MLA from Maharashtra multiple times, before he joined national level politics.

He contested Lok Sabha elections for the first time in 1998 and won it. He won 2004 general elections too. However he lost 2009 general elections. He left the Nationalist Congress Party-INC alliance in 2011. Athawale led the RPI party, joined the alliance of Shivsena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the same year, and since then he is associated with the same party.

Published: October 04, 2018

Updated: October 04, 2018