Manohar Joshi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Manohar Joshi

• Manohar Joshi was born in the rural region of Maharashtra and faced financial difficulties during his childhood.

• He later moved to Mumbai to pursue his studies because there was a lack of education facilities in his village.

• He worked in inns as a waiter and served as a peon in Mumbai.

• Joshi started his career as a teacher.

• In 1967, he entered in politics. Initially, he joined Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), but later joined the party Shiv Sena after getting influenced by Bal Thackeray‘s campaign “sons of the soil.”

  

• He was one of the most important leaders of Shiv Sena. According to various media reports, he was very loyal to the Thackerays. He was a huge follower of Thackeray.

• He worked as an officer at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after completing his law degree.

• In 1967, he founded the Kohinoor Technical Institute at at Dadar in Mumbai to provide training in various vocational courses in several industy segments such as Electronics, Automobiles, A.C. & Refrigeration, Animation, Computer Software, Fashion Designing, Real Estate and Construction, Textile, Healthcare, Retail, Banking, Information Technology, and Telecommunications.

• Later, several branches of the institute were opened across 6 Indian states including Maharashtra, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Rajasthan.

• He also founded the Kohinoor Business School and Kohinoor-IMI School of Hospitality Management in Khandala, Maharashtra.

• During his tenure as the Mayor of Mumbai, he ran a campaign named  ‘Clean Mumbai-Green Mumbai’.

  

• He authored a Marathi language book titled “Swachh Mumbai; Harit Mumbai.”

• In 1990, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly from a Shiv Sena ticket.

• In 1995, when the alliance of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, he became the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Maharashtra. However, the first non-Congress government in Maharashtra in 1978 was led by Sharad Pawar, a member of the Indian National Congress (Socialist).

• According to many of his party members, he was elected as the Chief Minister on 14 March 1995 after being chosen over his uncle and CM front-runner Sudhir Joshi as Thackeray considered him to be more intelligent and more knowledgeable about business.

• During his tenure as Chief Minister, the Maharashtra government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Hindujas. However, after learning about this agreement, Bal Thackeray expressed his discontent, feeling excluded from the decision-making process.

• Under Manohar’s leadership as Chief Minister, the Maharashtra government initiated a significant slum rehabilitation program. This initiative aimed to provide free housing to slum residents living in huts before 1995.

• The Bombay Pune Expressway was also built when Joshi was the CM.

• He, in partnership with Prakash Tukaram Chikhalikar and Ravindra Gajanan Awati, founded the Jagatik Marathi Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2011.

• He had also organized the Advantage Maharashtra Conference to promote industrial investments in Maharashtra, arranged Agro Advantage Maharashtra for farmers, and organised an exhibition displaying information on advanced technology in the field of agriculture, during his tenure as CM of the state.

• While serving as the Chief Minister, he got into clashes with many leaders including Chhagan Bhujbal in 1991. Bhujbal expressed his dissatisfaction when Bal Thackeray appointed Joshi as the opposition leader. Later, Bhujbal left the party.

• On 20 March 2006, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha but was defeated in the previous Lok Sabha election in the Central Mumbai constituency.

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

• In May 2023, he was admitted to PD Hinduja Hospital in a “semi-coma state” after suffering from a brain hemorrhage.

• In September 2023, Sada Sarvankar, an MLA associated with the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, made a bold statement in a video. He claimed that Uddhav Thackeray and Sanjay Raut had encouraged him to attack Joshi’s residence at Shivaji Park in 2009. ^[11]The Times of India

• Tensions between Uddhav Thackeray and Manohar Joshi deepned in 2013. In the same year, at the Shiv Sena’s annual Dussehra rally, Joshi, who had been seated beside Bal Thackeray in all rallies since 1967, was compelled to leave the stage. Allegedly, a group of Uddhav Thackeray’s supporters started shouting slogans against him and demanded his leave during the rally. Joshi once remarked that the leadership of Shiv Sena under Uddhav Thackeray was not as aggressive as it had been under Bal Thackeray. ^[12]The Economic Times

• Even after stepping back from politics, he continued to regularly attend every event at the Thackerays’ home, “Matoshree.”

• He was one of the Indians to be elected at all four legislatures.

• He died on 23 February 2024 at the age of 86 in Mumbai. He had suffered a cardiac arrest on 22 February 2024 and was admitted to Hinduja Hospital’s intensive care unit. His last rites were conducted at the Shivaji Park crematorium. According to the officials, he was given a state funeral.