MUMBAI: After seven years, state BJP politician Vinod Tawde is all set to return to electoral politics. Tawde, who found himself out of Maharashtra politics in 2019 and was accommodated as party general secretary thereafter in New Delhi, was on Wednesday named one of the BJP’s four candidates from Maharashtra for the March 16 Rajya Sabha elections.The other three on the list of candidates released by the BJP’s central election committee are ally Ramdas Athawale from RPI (A), currently Union minister of state for social welfare; Maya Ivnate, former Nagpur mayor and sitting corporator; and Ramrao Wadkute, who joined the BJP in 2019 and is from the Dhangar community.Political observers said Tawde has been rewarded for BJP’s performance in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, where he had been placed as party in-charge. BJP emerged as the single largest party in Bihar, winning 89 of the 243 seats in the state.Tawde, who rose steadily in the BJP Mumbai unit from president to opposition leader in the legislative council, saw his fortunes slide in 2019 when he was denied a ticket to contest the assembly elections that year. In his first term as MLA (2014-2019), he was elected from Borivli, a BJP stronghold. He was in 2019 replaced by Sunil Rane, a close associate of CM Devendra Fadnavis. Tawde was also a minister in the first Fadnavis-led govt.During the assembly elections in 2024, there was once again talk that Tawde may come back to state politics. However, he was caught in a major controversy on the eve of the elections, with workers of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi detaining him in a Vasai hotel and accusing him of distributing cash. The Hitendra Thakur-led VBA however lost all assembly seats in the Vasai-Virar belt.Observers said that the BJP recognised Tawde’s talent for political strategy and placed him in charge of five states that went to the polls in 2022: Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur. Except for Punjab, the party won all other states.Now, after Bihar, he has been placed in charge of the Kerala assembly elections.Seven Rajya Sabha seats from Maharashtra are set to fall vacant in April. With over 230 MLAs in the assembly, the BJP-led Mahayuti is in a position to ensure the election of all its six nominees.While BJP is filing nominations for four seats, the other two nominations are to be filed by candidates from the Shiv Sena and NCP, who had not announced their names till late Wednesday evening. Thursday is the last day for filing nominations.Tawde expressed gratitude to his party leadership and said he is committed to “fulfilling this new responsibility with complete dedication and loyalty.”
