Jiva Pandu Gavit is an Indian politician from the state of

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 ...

. He belongs to the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

and is a seven-term member of the

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 ...

representing Surgana and

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

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 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 ...

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 or non-partisan 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 political views th ...

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's

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 in ...

by eleven thousand votes and defeating Bhaskar Gopal of the

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 ...

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

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

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)