Ramesh Kashiram Karad (; ), commonly known as Ramesh Appa Karad, is an Indian politician from Maharashtra state and a member of

Maharashtra Legislative Council The Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad or Maharashtra Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of Maharashtra state in western India. Location The seat of the Vidhan Parishad is situated at the Nariman Point area of South M ...

from

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. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

and district president of Bharatiya Janata Party Latur. He belongs to Latur district of

Marathwada Marathwada () is a proposed state and geographical region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was formed during the Nizam's rule and was part of the then Hyderabad State. The region coincides with the Aurangabad division of Maharashtra. I ...

region in Maharashtra. He became councilor in 2020.

Personal life

Karad was born in a Hindu family to Kashiram Dadarao Karad in Rameshvar village of

Latur Taluka Latur Taluka is an administrative subdivision (taluka) of Latur District in Maharashtra, India. Latur Taluka is in the western part of Latur District, with Renapur Taluka to the north, Chakur Taluka and Shirur Anantpal Taluka to the east, Au ...

in Latur district of Maharashtra. He's politician by profession. His wife has a milk business. He is follower of saint Bhagwan Baba of Savargaon. He's nephew of education baron Vishwanath Karad. He's commonly referred to as Appa by his followers.

Political career

Karad fought elections from his native

Latur rural (Vidhan Sabha constituency) Latur Rural is one of an Assembly Constituency in the Latur. After the delimitation commission report, the Latur Assembly Constituency was divided in 2008 into Latur City Latur(लातूर) is a city in Indian state of Maharashtra, a ...

, which was part of Renapur assembly constituency. Renapur was influenced by then BJP leader

Gopinath Munde Gopinath Pandurang Munde (12 December 1949 – 3 June 2014) was an Indian politician from Maharashtra. A popular Leader in Maharashtra called a Lokneta. He was a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Union Minister for Rural a ...

. Karad is a follower of Munde. Latur rural constituency was created in 2009 by division of Renapur and Latur constituencies. Karad kept the party alive in Latur rural after the death of Munde. It was not easy to face then chief minister late

Vilasrao Deshmukh Vilasrao Dagadojirao Deshmukh (26 May 1945 – 14 August 2012) was an Indian politician who served as the 14th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, first term from 18 October 1999 to 16 January 2003 and second term, from 1 November 2004 to 5 ...

directly. But Karad fought alone in Latur rural. Karad is dreaming to be a legislator since 2009 due to Karad family's legacy and organization in rural region. He fought

2009 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election The 13th Assembly elections were held in Maharashtra, India on October 13, 2009. The ruling Democratic Front (Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)) contested the elections against the alliance of Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJ ...

, in which

Vaijnath Shinde Vaijnath Shinde is an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress and currently a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Maharashtra. In 2009, he contested election from the Latur Rural and defeated Ramesh Karad of Bharatiya Janat ...

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

defeated Karad by 23,500 votes. Trimbak Bhise of INC defeated Karad in

2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election The Indian state of Maharashtra has a bicameral legislature, comprising two houses. The lower house, known as the Legislative Assembly ("Vidhan Sabha" in Marathi), is directly elected by the people and is the more powerful of the two houses. Th ...

by 10,500 votes. But Karad didn't leave hope after two consecutive defeats. He continuously remained in contact with his voters. In 2018 legislative council election, he filed a nomination from

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

against

Suresh Dhas Suresh Dhas is a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Suresh Dhas is 3 time former member of Maharashtra legislative assembly from Ashti constituency (1999 to 2014) who served as minister of state for revenue, rehabilitation in Mahar ...

of BJP. But he shocked NCP leader

Dhananjay Munde Dhananjay Panditrao Munde (born 15 July 1975) is an Indian politician, who is currently a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and was appointed cabinet minister in Uddhav Thackeray's Maharashtra State Government. Early life and ed ...

, by drawing back nomination and returning to

Pankaja Munde Pankaja Munde (born 26 July 1979), also known by her married name Pankaja Munde-Palwe, is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra and National Secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Early life Pankaja Munde was born to Gopin ...

's group. Environment was set in

2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election The 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election was held on 21 October 2019 to elect all 288 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. After a 61.4% turnout in the election, the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of the Bharatiya ...

. He started works as per the orders of the party. Karad's followers had been claiming openly that, BJP left the seat to

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena (IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a Right-wing politics, right-wing to Far-right politics, far-right Marathi people, Marathi Regionalism (politics), regionalist and Hindu nationalism, Hindu ultranationalist political party in India f ...

to ease the victory of congress leader

Dhiraj Deshmukh Dhiraj Vilasrao Deshmukh (born 6 April 1980) is an Indian politician and an MLA of Indian National Congress, and son of Vilasrao Deshmukh. He was elected from the Latur Rural (Vidhan Sabha constituency) to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in ...

. Since then Karad didn't appear in the election. But the party attempted to remove his upset by giving him designation of district president for Latur rural . He filed nomination papers for legislative council election along with three other BJP members in 2020. But BJP used shock mechanism by giving official candidature to Karad instead of previously announced Ajit Gopchhade. He won the council election unopposed and entered legislature for the first time.

Scams and controversies

Karad is involved in three criminal cases where six charges are framed which include charges related to: # Intimidation (IPC Section-506) # Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means (IPC Section-324) # # # Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace (IPC Section-504) # Punishment for Rioting (IPC Section-147) # Rioting, armed with deadly weapon (IPC Section-148) # Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object (IPC Section-149) In 2020, FIR was filed against him and his 22 followers by district collector and magistrate of

Beed district Beed district (Marathi pronunciation: iːɖ is an administrative district in the state of Maharashtra in India. The district headquarters are located at Beed. The district occupies an area of 10,693 km² and has a population of 2,585,04 ...

, because he didn't follow

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Positions held

Within the party • 2020–present: district president, Latur rural In the legislature • 2020–present: member, Maharashtra legislative council

References

External links