Know your Minister | Arvind Sawant - Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise

File image: DD National

Arvind Sawant, second-time Member of Lok Sabha from South Mumbai, took oath as a member of the Narendra Modi cabinet on May 30.

The 68-year-old deputy leader of Shiv Sena was a member of Parliament’s Estimates Committee, and a member of Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas in 2014 when he made his debut in the Lok Sabha.

This time, Sawant has been given the charge of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise ministry.

Sawant defeated Milind Deora from Congress by 1 lakh votes.

Sawant, a trusted aide of Uddhav Thackeray, was a unanimous choice from Sena for the 2014 general elections. He has got two terms in the Legislative Council.

Coming from a middle-class family, Sawant fought his election on the slogan ‘Gully Te Dilli, Aapla Manoos’ and has said he will continue to work for the common man.

He has also raised issues related to slum development in Mumbai, houses to mill workers as well as prominence to Marathi language in the government functioning.

He not only registered more than 90 percent attendance in the House but is also one of the members who presented maximum number of private member bills.

Sawant had started his journey as the president of MTNL workers’ union and became a Member of Legislative Council in 1996.

Reportedly, his contribution to the MTNL workers’ union was getting services and pension benefit to employees who had entered MTNL as a lateral entry from Department of Telecom (DoT).

Despite winning 18 of the 23 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena has got only one ministerial berth. The party had sought at least three seats.

Sawant’s entry in the Modi cabinet will be interesting to watch as he was a vocal critic of the demonetisation exercise as well as some other policies of PM Modi.