Arvind Sawant, Cabinet Minister 2019: Shiv Sena leader goes from managing poll booth to Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise

Shiv Sena leader Arvind Ganpat Sawant, the re-elected Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai-South, took charge of the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise.

Sawant’s contest with Congress candidate Milind Deora in the 2019 elections was one of the most closely-watched races to the Lower House of Parliament.

Sawant is en route to becoming a first-time minister. He is believed to have been given a seat in the Council of Ministers in the new Modi government. The 68-year-old deputy leader of the Shiv Sena is set to replace Anant Geete as the only member of his party to hold a berth in the Modi government.

The Shiv Sena leader has served two terms as an MLC in the Maharashtra Legislative Council and has also been a spokesperson of the Shiv Sena. In the 16th Lok Sabha, he was a member of the Estimates Committee, Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Sawant, who has a B.Sc degree, was an engineer with MTNL till 1995 when he retired from the post. This was after he was nominated to the Maharashtra Legislative Council from the governor’s quota when the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government came to power in the state in 1995.