Parshottambhai Odhavjibhai Solanki (also spelled as Pursottambhai Odhavjibhai Solanki) is a

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 ...

politician. He is member of

Gujarat Legislative Assembly The Gujarat Legislative Assembly or Gujarat Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Gujarat, in the state capital Gandhinagar. Presently, 182 members of the Legislative Assembly are directly elected from single-member ...

since 1998 representing Bhavnagar Rural constituency. He has served as the Minister of Fisheries in the

Government of Gujarat The Government of Gujarat, also known as Gujarat Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Gujarat and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive of the legislators appointed by the Governor of Gujarat, a judiciar ...

. He is alleged to have caused loss of 400 crore (

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

72.4 million) to the government of Gujarat by granting contracts improperly. Solanki was active

Hindutva Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...

wadi and master mind in Mumbai riots of 1992 - 1993, a high level inquiry was conducted by

Srikrishna Commission Srikrishna Commission or Justice B. N. Srikrishna Commission of Inquiry was constituted by the Government of Maharashtra under Justice Srikrishna for investigating the causes of the Bombay riots. For five years until 1998, he examined victims, w ...

and found that Solanki was most aggressive Hindutvawadi but at that time Solanki was

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

. Solanki belongs to the

Koli Koli may refer to: People * Koli people, Indian caste group * Koli Christians, a Christian subgroup * Muslim Kolis, Muslim community * Koli (surname), Indian surname * Koli Sewabu (born 1975), Fijian rugby union footballer Places * Koli, Fin ...

caste of Gujarat.

Political career

Solanki won 2007 assembly elections (12th assembly elections) and became

Member of Legislative assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several national ...

from

Talaja Talaja may refer to: People * Roope Talaja (born 1988), Finnish ice hockey player * Silvija Talaja (born 1978), Croatian tennis player Places * Talaja Caves, India * Talaja, Bhavnagar Talaja is a town and a municipality in Bhavnagar distric ...

constituency, in

Bhavnagar Bhavnagar is a city and the headquarters of Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was founded in 1723 by Bhavsinhji Gohil. It was the capital of Bhavnagar State, which was a princely state before it was merged into the Dominion ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. Following the win, he was selected to serve as a cabinet minister in the government led by

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

and was appointed the "Minister of fisheries". He was elected again in 2017 from Bhavnagar Rural constituency.

Controversy

Fisheries scandal

In 2009 Solanki gave contracts for fishing in reservoirs across the state. The contracts were allegedly given for fishing in the waters of 58 dams without following or performing any tendering process by auctions and the contracts were just allotted after payment of 40 crore. It was estimated that due to the mis-conduct in granting the contracts, the government of Gujarat suffered a loss of 400 crore (

72.4 million). Following the allegations, Ishaq Maradia wanted to prosecute the minister under the Anti-corruption Act for the "irregularity". However, the cabinet and Modi rejected the application for prosecution twice due to "lack of sufficient evidence". The matter reached High Court and it was suggested by the court that the governor of Gujarat

Kamla Beniwal Kamla Beniwal (Hindi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, əmlaː beːn̪iːʋaːl 12 January 1927 – 15 May 2024) was an Indian independence activist and veteran politician who served as the List of deputy chief ministers of Rajasthan, ...

should take the decision whether to prosecute the minister or not. Beniwal, on 26 July 2012, overruled the state government and directed to prosecute the Minister. The matter was again taken to the high court by Solanki. The petition challenged the Governor's sanction and was seeking reversal. On 20 September 2012, the high court rejected the petition, citing that "the sanction for prosecution was not erroneous". As the court rejected the petition,

Arjun Modhwadia Arjun Modhwadia is a former Indian National Congress politician from Porbandar Gujarat, India. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2007. He had been a president of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Commit ...

, the leader of the opposition and president of Gujarat congress, alleged the role of

in the scam and also asked for Modi's resignation on moral grounds. He added, "Rs. 400 crore scam was carried out with 'full knowledge of CM' and he, he should step down, owning moral responsibility." The court directed the superintendent of police,

Gandhinagar Gandhinagar () is the capital of the state of Gujarat in India. Gandhinagar is located approximately 23 km north of Ahmedabad, on the west central point of the industrial corridor between the megacities of Delhi and Mumbai. Gandhinagar ...

, to probe the matter and submit the report on the role played by the minister by 6 October 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solanki, Parshottambhai Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat Gujarat MLAs 2007–2012 Corruption in India Living people Gujarat MLAs 2012–2017 Gujarat MLAs 2017–2022 Gujarati people 1961 births

Political career

Controversy

Fisheries scandal

See also

References