Manohar Joshi

Manohar Gajanan Joshi (2 December 1937 – 23 February 2024) was an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra, who served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999, and Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2002 to 2004.

He was one of the prominent leaders of the Shiv Sena, and also one of the Indians to be elected to all of the four legislatures.

Joshi was born on 2 December 1937 in the Marathi-speaking Brahmin family of Gajanan Krishna Joshi and Saraswati Gajanan in Nandavi of Raigad district in Maharashtra.

He received his Masters of Arts and LLB degrees from Mumbai University.

He married Anagha Joshi on 14 May 1964, with whom he had a son, Unmesh, and two daughters, Asmita and Namrata.

His granddaughter, Sharvari Wagh, made her debut as an actress with the 2021 film Bunty Aur Babli 2.

After receiving his MA in law he joined Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as an officer, but later started the Kohinoor technical/vocational training institute with the idea of an institute for semi–skilled youths to offer training as electricians, plumbers, TV/radio/scooter repairmen and photographers.

Eventually, he started multiple branches of Kohinoor in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, etc., and later he made an entry into construction and another capital-oriented business.

Manohar Joshi also founded the Kohinoor Business School & Kohinoor-IMI School of Hospitality Management in Khandala, Maharashtra.

Later on he took Chancellorship of Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth.

Joshi began his career by being elected as a municipal councillor in Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1968 from the Shiv Sena.

In 1972 Joshi was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council, where he served three terms until 1989.

He became the Mayor of Mumbai during 1976 to 1977.

Technically, Sharad Pawar led the first non-Congress government in Maharashtra in 1978 as a member of Socialist Indian National Congress.

He was elected to the Legislative Assembly from a Shiv Sena ticket in 1990.

Joshi and Bal Thackeray were explicitly named for inciting the Shivsainiks to violence against Muslims during the 1992–1993 riots in an inquiry ordered by the government of India, the Srikrishna Commission Report.

However, Joshi, then a part of the BJP-Sena government called the report "anti-Hindu, pro-Muslim and biased" and refused to adopt the commission's recommendations.

As Chief Minister, he had permitted the release of a plot of land in Pune, reserved for a school, to a builder with ties to his son-in-law, Girish Vyas.

Joshi became the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra when the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition came to power in 1995.

A housing complex, named Sundew, was built on that land by Vyas in 1998.

Sustained legal efforts by Vijay Kumbhar, an RTI activist from Pune, led to Joshi's resignation in January 1999.

Joshi was promoted to the Lok Sabha when he won in Central Mumbai in the 1999 General Elections.

He was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2002 to 2004 during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) administration.

Joshi was elected for a six-year term to the Rajya Sabha on 20 March 2006 after being defeated in the previous Lok Sabha election in the Central Mumbai constituency.

In September 2022, Manohar Joshi was appointed a key patron of NLC Bharat.

Manohar Joshi died in Mumbai on 23 February 2024, at the age of 86.

He had suffered a cardiac arrest a day earlier and been placed in Hinduja hospital's intensive care unit, dying the next day of age-related health complications.

In March 2009, Bombay High Court passed a verdict calling the housing complex illegal.

The Supreme Court of India upheld the verdict in 2011 and fined Joshi Rs 15,000.

Following its order, the building is now being used for a school.