Manohar Joshi, the former chief minister of Maharashtra, passed away early on Friday, one day after being admitted to the hospital due to a heart arrest.
The private hospital in Mumbai, P D Hinduja Hospital, announced on Thursday that he had been admitted to the ICU.
Joshi, the 86-year-old former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, was brought to the hospital on Wednesday and is in critical condition, according to a statement from the facility. “Manohar Joshi, Ex-Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was admitted at PD Hinduja Hospital on 21st February 2024. He suffered a cardiac event and is severely ill. He is currently in the ICU under close observation and receiving best of medical care,” the statement said.
The 86-year-old Shiv Sena veteran had a brain bleed and was taken to the same hospital in May of last year.
From 1995 to 1999, Manohar Joshi held the position of chief minister, making history as the first member of the Shiv Sena to hold the highest office in the state without division. During the Vajpayee government’s tenure in the Lok Sabha from 2002 to 2004, he was also elected as a Member of Parliament.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who served in the Maharashtra government under Joshi as chief minister, responded to the news by declaring that the state has lost its “cultured face” in politics.
The Shivaji Park Crematorium in the Dadar region will host Joshi’s final ceremonies, according to his family.
A native of Maharashtra’s coastal Konkan region, Joshi graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the esteemed Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) in Mumbai on December 2, 1937.
His membership in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh marked the beginning of his political career, and he subsequently joined the Shiv Sena. Joshi, who was well-known for his organisational abilities, rose to prominence in the Shiv Sena throughout the 1980s as a major leader.
During the Vajpayee government’s tenure from 2002 to 2004, he served as Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Anagha Joshi, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 75, was the spouse of the former Union minister. Two girls and a son survive him.
Joshi started out as a teacher before going into politics in 1967. He spent more than forty years as a member of the Shiv Sena.
He served as a Mumbai municipal councillor from 1968 to 1970 and as chairman of the Mumbai municipal corporation’s standing committee in 1970. He served as Mumbai’s mayor from 1976 to 1977.
In 1972, he was chosen to serve in the Maharashtra Legislative Council. Joshi was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1990 after spending three terms in the Legislative Council. From 1990 to 1991, he led the opposition in the assembly.
Joshi, a Shiv Sena candidate from the Mumbai North-Central Lok Sabha Constituency, emerged victorious in the 1999 general elections and went on to become the Union minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.
