Manohar Joshi passes away: Maharashtra’s first non-Congress CM, former LS Speaker was Bal Thackeray’s loyal aide

Former Lok Sabha Speaker and Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, the first CM to lead a non-Congress government, breathed his last at a Mumbai hospital at 3 am on Friday. He was 86.

Joshi was from the village of Nandavi in Raigad and came to Mumbai, then Bombay, in his youth to pursue his studies and a career. But he got into politics, mesmerised by the “son-of-the-soil” politics of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray who became his mentor. Loyal to the Thackerays till the end, Joshi was an ardent follower of Thackeray and though often publicly admonished by him, he never left his side, responding to the Sena leader’s rebukes by saying, “Balasaheb is my leader.” Unsurprisingly, when his chief ministerial tenure was curtailed early, Joshi bowed out without any protest and made way for his successor Narayan Rane in January 1999.

Joshi’s rise in politics was a gradual process. After completing his law degree from Mumbai University, he worked as an officer in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He had a nose for business and started the Kohinoor Technical and Vocational Training Institute and later opened Kohinoor Business and Management, with multiple branches in the state. It was during this time that he got inspired by Thackeray’s clarion call to the sons of the soil (the Marathi manoos) to fight for the community.

He first contested the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls and served as a corporator from 1968 to 1972. Four years later, he entered the Legislative Council where he remained till 1989 and in between, from 1976 to 1977, also served as the Mayor of Mumbai. In 1990, Joshi contested the Assembly elections and was elected from Dadar, a constituency he represented till 1999. Dadar was important to