Jitendra Awhad

Jitendra Awhad
Member of Legislative Assembly-Maharashtra,Ex-Cabinet Minister-Medical Education & Horticulture, Maharashtra
Constituency	Kalwa & Mumbra
Personal details
Born	(1963-08-05)5 August 1963 Thane
Citizenship	Indian
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Nationalist Congress Party
Residence	Thane
Occupation	Politician
Religion	Hindu

Jitendra Awhad (Marathi: जितेंद्र आव्हाड) is MLA of Maharashtra. In the last term, he has been Cabinet Minister of Medical Education and Horticulture of Maharashtra state. He has also been Working President of the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra.

Early Life and Education

Jitendra Awhad was born to Smt. Lilavati and Shri Satish Awhad. He went to St. John Baptist High School, Thane. In 1981, he completed his HSC in Science.

He then went to B.N Bandodkar College. While in college, he was chosen as Gymkhana Secretary, and further went on to become the secretary of the All India Students' Organization, a non-political outfit.^[1] In the year 1982 he successfully launched a campaign against a rise in tuition fees.^[1] Awhad completed his Marine Engineering Studies in 1984-85. He continued to take graduate degree in personnel management.^[1] He worked in Kores India Limited, Thane as Asst. labour Officer from 1988 to 1995.

Dr. Jitendra Awhad holds a doctorate from Mumbai University, the thesis being "The history of Socio-Religious movement in Maharashtra, a sub-altern view"

Jitendra Awhad considers Shri. Sharad Pawar as his mentor.

Early Non Political Career

1980-82 - He was general secretary of Thane District Youth Congress.

1987 – 1988 – Dr. Awhad was also a representative of the Maharashtra Institute of Labour.

1988-91 - He was the Maharashtra Pradesh National Students Union of India's (NSUI) chief secretary.

1991-93 - He was elected as general secretary of the NSUI, and also from 1991 he is President of the Akhil Bharitya Vanjara Youth Association.

1993 till 1998, he was as president of Thane Municipal Council educational panel.

1996 - Awhad was elected as youth congress president for Maharashtra.^[2]

1999 - After the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Awhad was elected as the first National President of NCP (Youth).

Political career

Feb 2002 – 2008 - After the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Awhad was elected as the first national President of NCP (Youth). From here he entered mainstream politics. He was elected as a Member of the Legislative Council of Maharashtra, and again re-elected as an MLC in March 2008 for a five-year term.^[3]

13 October 2009 - He was elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra from the Mumbra-Kalwa Constituency.

16 October 2009 - He contested M.L.A Election for the first time.

Since 2002, he holds the post of Senate member of Mumbai University and also District President of NCP-Thane. He also holds the post of President of the Indian Pilots Guild, the union of the airline pilots of Air India. He is the President of Thane District Nationalist Congress Party.^[3]

Sangharsh

He is also credited with popularizing and organizing the festival of Krishna Janmashtami or Dahi Handi, through his NGO Sangharsh.^[4] Every year lakhs of people visit the festival, especially groups of youth from Thane, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai to participate in the festival by forming human pyramids and winning huge prizes. He has also managed to invite Human Pyramid groups from Spain^[5] for this festival and has created world records for the highest pyramids of 9 layers.^[6]...

Achievements

Cabinet Minister - Horticulture, Maharashtra State horticulture minister, Dr Jitendra Awhad met with Shri Amitabh Bachchan and discussed the chances of him being the brand for state's horticulture to encourage the farmers, promote their produce and ensure quality for consumers. Mr Bachchan agreed to do so and is the ambassador for horticulture in the state.^[7]

Cabinet Minister – Medical Education, Maharashtra Medical Education Minister, Dr. Jitendra Awhad started an initiative called "Coffee with students" to connect and resolve issues of medical students across the state. In the first month alone, cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Dhule, Solapur have been covered and effective measures have been taken to improve the situations for Students and also staff.^[8]

References