Vijay Bhausaheb Thorat (Marathi pronunciation: aːɭaːsaːɦeb t̪ʰoɾaːt̪ born 7 February 1953) is an Indian politician who was minister for revenue in

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

state. He is currently appoint Deputy Leaders of the Opposition
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on 4 July 2022. He is an

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 Em ...

legislator from Sangamner constituency. Thorat is a key figure in the cooperative movement and is the founder of a milk co-operative and former president of the Sangamner District and State Cooperative Bank. He is recognised for his work in

Sangamner taluka Sangamner taluka, is a taluka in Sangamner subdivision of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra State of India. Area The table below shows area of the taluka by land type. Ranjangao There are around 172 villages iSangamnertaluka. ''For list of vil ...

and

Akole taluka Akole taluka is a taluka in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra State of India. Akole consists of many places like Harishchandragad, Kalsubai, Bhandardara(Wilson)Dam, Sandhan Valley, Vishramgad etc. which attract tourists. Akole is not only famo ...

. He has founded cooperative educational institutions in

Sangamner Sangamner is a city and a municipal council located in the Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra state in India. It derives its name from the site of the ''sangam'' (confluence) of three rivers in the area: Pravara, Mhalungi, and Adhala. It is ...

. Previously, he served as Minister of Agriculture and as Minister of Revenue, and Khar Lands in the

Government of Maharashtra The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the Vidhan Sabha for a five-year term. Maharashtra has a Maharashtra Legisla ...

Early life

Thorat was born on 7 February 1953 to late Bhausaheb Thorat. He was named as Vijay. His father Bhausaheb Thorat was a peasant leader in Maharashtra and a one-time legislator from Sangamner constituency. Bhausaheb Thorat defeated the then political heavyweight of Maharashtra

B. J. Khatal-Patil Bhikajirao Jijaba Khatal-Patil (26 March 1919 – 16 September 2019), popularly known as ''Dada'' or ''Khatal Saheb'' was an Indian politician. He was a senior Maharashtra leader and a veteran Congressman. He served as a member of the Legislat ...

, a minister in the Maharashtra's government for sixteen-years, in the 1978 Assembly elections as a candidate of

INC Inc. or inc may refer to: * Incorporation (business), as a suffix indicating a corporation * ''Inc.'' (magazine), an American business magazine * Inc. No World, a Los Angeles-based band * Indian National Congress, a political party in India * I ...

Education

Thorat obtained his LLB degree from ILS Law College,

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

in 1977 and BA from

Ferguson college Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by the Deccan Education Society. Professor Vaman Shivram Apte was its fi ...

Pune University Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU), formerly the University of Poona, is a collegiate public state university located in the city of Pune, India. It was established in 1949, and is spread over a campus in the neighbourhood of Ganeshk ...

in 1975.

Political career

He began his political career as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

and fought for the Sangamner Vidhan Sabha seat and won with a margin of 10,159 votes on Shakuntala Khanderao Horat. From then he never looked back and won 8 assembly elections never getting defeated in any elections as a candidate of

. He was the Minister of State for agriculture in the first

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 D ...

's government. Later in 2004 he was elevated to the rank of cabinet minister along with

Anil Deshmukh Anil Vasantrao Deshmukh is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He is a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party. Deshmukh served as the Minister for Home Affairs in Government of Maharashtra between 2019 and 2021. Deshmu ...

NCP NCP may refer to: Science and medicine * Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (a temporary name for COVID-19), an outbreak that was officially identified in late 2019. * HIV-1 nucleocapsid protein 7 (NCp7), a target of zinc finger inhibitors * Nucleosome ...

. He was one of those few leaders in

who served as ministers in the 15-year Congress-NCP alliance. He served as the minister of Agriculture, Water Conservation, Employment Guarantee Scheme and Additional charge of School Education in

Prithviraj Chavan Prithviraj Chavan () (born 17 March 1946) is an Indian politician who was the 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a state in Western India. Chavan is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and University of Cali ...

's cabinet. He is a well-known and a leading face in the

cooperative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

. His nephew Satyajeet Tambe Patil is also a politician in

Ahmadnagar district Ahmednagar district (Marathi pronunciation: �ɦ(ə)məd̪nəɡəɾ is the largest district of Maharashtra state in western India. The historical Ahmednagar city is the headquarters of the district. Ahmednagar and Sangamner are largest cities ...

and a two-time member of Ahmadnagar Municipality. Thorat was made the MPCC chief in 2019 when

Ashok Chavan Ashokrao Shankarrao Chavan (born 28 October 1958) is an Indian politician from Maharashtra. He is one of the most influential leaders of Indian National Congress in Maharashtra. He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state from 8 D ...

resigned following the weak performance of the party in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

elections. Thorat had to battle with the large-scale defections from his party to the ruling alliance. Due to defections the congress's tally in the assembly fell down decisively. Under his leadership the party improved its tally from 31 legislators in the assembly to 44 legislators. After the 2019 political turmoil in Maharashtra with the formation of a post-poll alliance called

Maha Vikas Aghadi The Maha Vikas Aghadi or Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (English: ''Maharashtra Development Front''), abbreviated as MVA, is a state-level political coalition formed after the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election under the leadership of Ud ...

by the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

and

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...

, Thorat was sworn in as a minister in the Uddhav Thackeray administration.

Political statistics

Positions held

* 1985–present -

Member of Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

. * 1999–2004 - Minister of State for Agriculture, Govt. of Maharashtra * 2004-2014 - Cabinet Minister, Govt. of Maharashtra * 14 July 2019 – 5 February 2021 - PCC Chief, Maharashtra * 26 November 2019 - Incumbent - Congress Legislative Party leader,

Maharashtra Legislative Assembly The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai. Presently, 288 memb ...

* 28 November 2019 – Present - Cabinet Minister for Revenue, Govt. of Maharashtra * 8 January 2020 - Guardian minister

Kolhapur Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'. Kolhapur is kn ...

* Permanent invitee -

Congress Working Committee The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is the executive committee of the Indian National Congress. It was formed in December 1920 at Nagpur session of INC which was headed by C. Vijayaraghavachariar. It typically consists of fifteen members electe ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorat, Balasaheb Marathi politicians Cooperatives in Maharashtra Forestry in India Water conservation in India 1953 births Living people Maharashtra MLAs 2014–2019 Maharashtra MLAs 1985–1990 Maharashtra MLAs 1990–1995 Maharashtra MLAs 1995–1999 Maharashtra MLAs 1999–2004 Maharashtra MLAs 2004–2009 Maharashtra MLAs 2009–2014 Maharashtra MLAs 2019–2024 Deputy opposition leaders