Balkrishna Ramchandra Wasnik (12 August 1929 – 10 September 2015) was an Indian politician and member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

Political career

In 1957, at the age of 28 he was elected in the

Bhandara lok sabha constituency Bhandara Lok Sabha constituency was a former Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituency in Maharashtra state in western India. With the delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies in 2008, based on the recommendations of the Delimitation Commis ...

. He was re-elected in 1962. Afterwards from

Buldhana Buldhana (Marathi pronunciation: ) is a city and a Municipal Council in the Indian state of Maharashtra, established on 17 February 1893. It is the administrative headquarters of Buldhana District in the Amravati Division. Buldhana is the secon ...

in (1980). He was a staunch supporter of separate

Vidarbha Vidarbha (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �id̪əɾbʱə is a geographical region in the west Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Forming the eastern part of the state, it comprises Amravati Division, Amrav ...

. In 1967, he became President of the Mahavidarbha Rajya Sangharsh Samiti and mobilized the agitation to press for this demand.

Family

He belongs to an Ambedkarite

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

family. He hails from

Mahar Mahar is one of the Indian caste found largely in the state of Maharashtra and neighbouring areas. Most of the Mahar community followed B. R. Ambedkar in converting to Buddhism in the middle of the 20th century. As of 2017 the Mahar caste w ...

community and has a son,

Mukul Wasnik Mukul Balkrishna Wasnik (born 27 September 1959) is an Indian Politician and a member of the Parliament. He was the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment in Government of India. He represented the Ramtek constituency of Maharashtra from ...

two daughters, Dipti Wasnik Saxena and Seema Wasnik.

Death

He died on 10 September 2015 in

Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...

, aged 86.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wasnik, Balkrishna Ramchandra 1929 births 2015 deaths Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra Navayana Buddhists 20th-century Indian Buddhists 21st-century Indian Buddhists Marathi politicians India MPs 1957–1962 India MPs 1962–1967 Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra