Bhagat Singh Koshyari, was the people’s Governor, one of the most loved by the people of Maharashtra. I have been in journalism for two decades and have seen many Governors of Maharashtra but have never seen such an active and favourite Governor of the people. Apart from engaging in various cultural activities and greeting people, he has a huge share in recent state politics. He is the only one who played masterstrokes in the Maharashtra political crisis.
He is one of the highly educated cadres of the BJP. He has a Master’s Degree in English from Almora University. Bhagat Da, as he is lovingly called in his home state Uttarakhand, is a soft-spoken politician who has been an RSS Karyakarta and never the one to miss out on making his point. “A simple black cap and white dhoti is his trademark. He is a man of simple living but also one with an incisive political mind which all can see now”, said one of the politicians, unwilling to be named here given the sensitive situation in Maharashtra.
Once he was a very successful journalist and founded a weekly called ‘Parvat Piyush’ in 1975. He has authored two books titled, ‘Uttaranchal Pradesh Kyun?’ and ‘Uttaranchal Sangharsh Evam Samadhan’. In the meantime, he was also an RSS pracharak in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. He actively took part in the struggle against the Emergency and was detained for almost two years. Before he plunged fully into politics, Koshyari taught at Raja Inter College in Uttar Pradesh.
A postgraduate in English literature, Koshyari was born on June 17, 1942. He started his public life through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was jailed in 1977 during an emergency. He got his break in politics in May 1997 by becoming a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. A significant turning point in Koshyari’s political career came later when he replaced Nityanand Swami as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in 2001. His cabinet included ministers like Ramesh Pokhriyal – ‘Nishank’, the current HRD minister and former Uttarakhand CM. However, his tenure lasted for merely a year as the BJP lost the assembly elections in 2002. Thereafter till 2007, he played the role of the leader of the opposition of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly.
As the tide changed and BJP regained power in the state in 2007, Koshyari who won the Kapkot assembly seat was strongly considered as the probable chief ministerial face, but the party high command chose Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri over him. In 2008, he was elected as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttarakhand. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election Koshyari won from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar.
Koshyari is known as one of the grounded and low-profile members of the BJP. He is among those veteran BJP leaders who were denied tickets to contest Lok Sabha polls in previous elections after the party decided not to field candidates who were 75 years of age. Following the formation of Uttarakhand as a separate State, he was appointed the first State Unit Chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was a Rajya Sabha MP from 2008 to 2014. His years of dedication and commitment to the BJP and the RSS bore fruits when he was appointed as the Maharashtra Governor in September 2020.
If there is anyone who has played a masterstroke in the current Maharashtra political crisis, it is Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. When the BJP and its warring ally, Shiv Sena, failed to resolve the power tussle for nearly a fortnight, Koshyari invited BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis to indicate his ability to form the government. When he expressed his inability, the next call went to the Shiv Sena. And that is where the Maharashtra political logjam took a new turn. Bhagat Da, as he is fondly called in his home state Uttarakhand, is a soft-spoken politician who has been an RSS man and never the one to miss out on making his point. Koshyari is among those veteran BJP leaders who were denied tickets to contest Lok Sabha polls earlier this year after the party decided not to field candidates who were 75 years of age.
Koshyari was born on June 17, 1942, in the Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand. He actively took part in the struggle against the Emergency and was detained for almost two years.
