Manikrao Govindrao Thakare (born 22 August 1954) 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 is a senior leader of

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 ...

and is considered by people to be the most trustworthy OBC leader in

. He was previously a 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 ...

from the

from 1985 until 2004 from Darwha (Vidhan Sabha constituency) Constituency. He was later given the Energy Ministry portfolio during January 2003 - 2004 and in July 2004, he was one of 22 ministers to be dropped as minister by the then

Chief Minister of Maharashtra The chief minister of Maharashtra (IAST: Mahārāṣṭrāce Mukhyamaṃtrī) is the head of the executive branch of the government of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Following elections to the Legislative Assembly, the governor invites ...

Sushilkumar Shinde Sushilkumar Sambhaji Shinde (born 4 September 1941) is an Indian former police officer and statesman from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Power in the Manmohan Singh government, and the Leader of the ...

. Manikrao has been a vocal critic of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

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 ...

alliance government which ruled Maharashtra up to 1999, especially its handling of the Srikrishna Commission. On 27 July 1998, Manikrao along with R R Patil demanded that the Justice Shrikrishna Commission report be tabled on the floor of the assembly. This forced an adjournment of the assembly. His relentless criticism of the then government in the legislature ensured that when the government lost its mandate. Manikrao Thakare was appointed AICC incharge of Telangana affairs on 4 January 2023.

References

Marathi politicians 1954 births Members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council Living people Maharashtra MLAs 1985–1990 Maharashtra MLAs 1990–1995 Maharashtra MLAs 1995–1999 Maharashtra MLAs 1999–2004 Indian National Congress politicians from Maharashtra Presidents of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee {{Maharashtra-INC-politician-stub