There was tremendous political turmoil in the NCP camp last year. In this political turmoil, within an hour the leader of the opposition in Maharashtra became the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. In a dramatic manner, NCP leader Ajit Pawar extended his support to the Shinde government along with 40 MLAs and the leader became the Deputy CM directly from the opposition. After which Sharad Pawar had decided to make Jitendra Awhad the new leader of opposition. He has a good standing in NCP. He started his political journey during his student days. He has worked as a student leader. Jitendra Awhad protested against rising tuition fees at Mumbai University in 1982.
NCP leader Jitendra Awhad was born to Mrs. Lilavati and Mr. Satish Awhad. He was educated at St. John the Baptist High School, Thane. In 1981, he joined BN Bandodkar College as a Bachelor of Science. While in college, he was elected as the Gymkhana Secretary and later became the Secretary of the All India Students Organisation. Awhad started standing for social causes in 1982 by starting a campaign against rising tuition fees at Mumbai University. After completing his marine engineering studies in 1984–85, he earned a master’s degree in Personnel Management from the University of Mumbai. Awhad also holds a doctorate degree from the University of Mumbai.
After the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999, Awhad was elected the first national president of the youth NCP. From here he entered mainstream politics and was elected MLC in 2002. In March 2008 he was re-elected as MLC for a five-year term. In 2009 he contested his first election and won from Mumbra-Kalwa assembly constituency by a large margin. In May 2014, he was inducted into the Prithviraj Chavan ministry as the Minister of Medical Education, Horticulture, Employment Guarantee.
As the Horticulture Minister of Maharashtra state, Dr Jitendra Awhad gained popularity when he proposed the name of Amitabh Bachchan to become the brand ambassador for the state horticulture. To encourage farmers, promote their produce and ensure quality to consumers. In July 2014, Amitabh Bachchan was appointed as the horticulture brand ambassador of Maharashtra. Dr. Jitendra Awhad started an initiative called “Coffee with Students” to connect medical students across the state and solve their problems. Cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Dhule, Solapur were covered in the first month itself and effective measures were taken to improve the condition of students and staff.
Awhad was inducted into the Thackeray ministry as housing minister in 2019. Following Nawab Malik’s departure from the cabinet in March 2022, Awhad was appointed as the Minister of Minority Development and Auqaf. Awhad was appointed as the Leader of Opposition and Chief Party Whip in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly following the resignation of Ajit Pawar and appointment as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra amid the 2023 political crisis in the Nationalist Congress Party. Dr. Jitendra Awhad, being a public figure, has also been the subject of some controversial incidents. He was accused of attacking a civil engineer named Anant Karamuse on 5 April 2020. Dr Awhad has also been booked for allegedly making derogatory remarks on the Sindhi community during a party function in Ulhasnagar in May 2020.
