On the day he was elected as Maharashtra BJP’S new president, former minister Ravindra Chavan dropped a bombshell on Congress by engineering defection of Kunal Patil, Congress heavyweight from north Maharashtra.
It is well known in the BJP that Chavan likes to hit the ground running. There’s another interesting story about him. As a minister in Eknath Shinde government, Chavan was touring Sindhudurg district where he held a Janata Darbar to address people's grievances. A tribal family had come there to explain to government babus about their housing problem. Chavan came to know about it at the Janata Darbar. When he asked government officials, they couldn't provide a satisfactory answer and told him about procedural and technical difficulties. Chavan realised that tribal family will be homeless if they depend on government decision. He promptly donated a piece of land from his own land in the district and asked the tribal family to build their dream home.
This is typical of Ravindra Chavan. He likes to find quick solutions to tricky issues.
A humanities graduate, Chavan has been associated with RSS since childhood. He was an active Swayamsevak in the RSS Shakha in Dombivali, in Thane district. From RSS, he graduated to ABVP and then the BJP.
He first contested assembly elections in 2009 and won with a handsome margin. Since then he has been winning in every assembly elections. In 2024, he was the MLA who won with highest margin in Konkan region of Maharashtra.
Mumbai, Maharashtra: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the name of Ravindra Chavan as the new BJP Maharashtra State President pic.twitter.com/csr2dTgr2N
— IANS (@ians_india) July 1, 2025
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis saw the talent in Chavan and picked him as minister of state in 2016 in first Fadnavis government. Chavan performed very effectively. So when Eknath Shinde became chief minister in 2022, Chavan was BJP's choice for a cabinet berth in the Shinde ministry. Here his unwritten task was to keep the BJP base intact in Thane district where Eknath Shinde had immense hold and clout.
In that role, Chavan even locked horns with Shinde’s MP son Dr Shrikant Shinde.
Chavan is affectionately known as Ravi Dada among party workers. He is married and has two children. When Fadnavis came power again in 2024 with a thumping majority, any outgoing minister would have liked to continue as minister. But Chavan chose a different path. He became working president of the party. He has been travelling across the state since then. The fruits of this travel are seen in the form of Congress leader Kunal Patils entry into BJP on Tuesday.
