Murlidhar Mohol, 49, started off as a booth-level worker for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), went on to become Pune Mayor and is now the city’s first Lok Sabha member to be part of the Union Council of Ministers in 38 years. The Minister of State for the ministries of Civil Aviation and Cooperation — a former wrestler whose grandfather, father, uncle and elder brother have all been wrestlers — spoke to The Indian Express about his elevation to New Delhi’s political arena, cooperative institutions, RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat recent remarks on electoral decorum, the forthcoming state polls in Maharashtra and the Porsche hit-and-run case. Edited excerpts: