Jiva Pandu Gavit is an Indian politician from the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. He belongs to the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

and is a seven-term member of the

Maharashtra Legislative Assembly The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (ISO: ''Mahārāṣṭra Vidhāna Sabhā'') is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Maharashtra state in western India. It consists of 288 members directly elected from single-seat constituenci ...

representing

Surgana Surgana is a census town and taluka in Nashik District in the Indian state of Maharashtra. History During the British Raj era, Surgana State was one of several princely state governed by the Pawar dynasty of kshatriya Kolis. It was the only ...

and

Kalwan Kalwan is a tehsil in Kalwan subdivision of Nashik District in Maharashtra, India. Kalwan is situated 80 km from Nashik and 251 km from the state capital Mumbai. Saptashrungi Gad, a religious shrine of Goddess Saptashrungi, is situat ...

constituencies. He was elected the Pro-tem Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 2014 and was the only leftist member of the 13th Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra.

Political career

Gavit started his political career as a farmers rights advocate and became a member of the Kisan Sabha. A staunch Communist Gavit was first elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Surgana constituency in 1978 on a Communist Party of India (Marxist) ticket and narrowly beat his opponent Chavan Harichandra Deoram by four hundred votes. In the next assembly election of 1980 Gavit won against 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 ...

candidate Bhoye Sitaram Sayaji by about eighteen hundred votes. The following election of 1985 Gavit defeated the ruling party candidate Kahandole Zamru Manglu from the Indian national congress by more than twelve thousand votes. In the following 1990 assembly election a confident Gavit and by now already a three term member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly took on the Indian national congress's Bhoye Sitaram Sayaji whom he had defeated in the 1980 election. The result was the same and Gavit won by a margin of over sixteen thousand votes. This win sent him for the fourth time to the Maharashtra's lower house. By the time the 1995 assembly election happened, Gavit was facing a seventeen-year anti-incumbency and lost to an

independent candidate An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have polit ...

Harischandra Devram Chavan by a huge margin of about twenty-seven thousand votes. In the following 1999 and 2004 Maharashtra assembly election Gavit held the seat both times defeating Harischandra Devram Chavan who had by now joined

Sharad Pawar Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar (, pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �əɾəd̪ pəʋaːɾ born 12 December 1940) is an Indian politician. Pawar served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for four terms and in the Union Council of Ministers ...

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the List of political parties in India#State parties, state parties in India and is one of the major political parties in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra with a recognised state party statu ...

by eleven thousand votes and defeating Bhaskar Gopal of the

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena (1966–2022) (; ; SS) was a right-wing Marathi regionalist Hindutva-based political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray, who was later succeeded by Uddhav Thackeray. The party is split into two parties: the Uddha ...

by fourteen thousand votes respectively. In 2009 due to delimitation by the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

Gavit had to change his assembly constituency and left his safe seat of Surgana to fight from a newly formed constituency called

where he took on eight term assembly member and sitting minister of the government Arjun Tulshiram Pawar, Gavit lost to Pawar of the

by more than sixteen thousand votes. The 2014 elections were a referendum for the ruling Congress and the Nationalist Congress as there was a fifteen-year anti-incumbency and Gavit defeated Arjun Tulshiram Pawar by a slender margin of about four thousand votes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavit, Jiva Pandu Living people Maharashtra MLAs 2014–2019 Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Maharashtra Marathi politicians Year of birth missing (living people)