Vijay Wadettiwar is the leader of opposition in the outgoing Maharashtra Leagislative Assembly. He is extremely aggressive in the house when he exposes the treasury benches and tears apart their arguments. However, he is equally calm and very balanced whenever he meets party workers and guides them to help them resolve various issues that they bring to him. This way he makes a very good mix of leadership qualities that the party like Congress needs today.
Born in 1962 at a small village named Karaji in Gondpimpri taluka of Chandrapur district, Wadettiwar ventured into politics as a student leaders who led several of the students’ agitations in early 80’s.
His natural choice even in those days was the NSUI. However, as he advanced into the politics after completing college, he joined the Shiv Sena. His aggressive nature suited the Shiv Sena style of politics and he made good progress within the party at an early age.
He was nominated to the Zilla Parishad (ZP) by the party in 1991 and in 1995 when the party came to power in the state for the first time he was entrusted with the responsibility as chairperson of the forest development corporation. The post had the status of minister of state.
Wadettiwar was sent to the legislative council by the party in 1998. And he contested assembly election for the first time from Chimur constituency of Chandrapur district in 2004.
He was among the 11 MLAs who left Shiv Sena along with former CM Narayan Rane in 2005 to join the Congress. In 2008 he was entrusted with the responsibilities of the environment, forests, tribal welfare and water resources as the minister of state. Within a year the government had to face elections and Wadettiwar returned to assembly with and enhanced support. Between 2009 and 2014 he was minister of state for water resources, energy, finance and planning and parliamentary affairs. In 2014 when the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance came to power in the state he was made deputy leader of the house by the Congress party and after the then leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil joined the BJP, Wadettiwar became the leader of opposition in the state assembly.
Meanwhile, Narayan Rane, along with whom Wadettiwar had joined the Congress, quit the party to join BJP. However, Wadettiwar remained with the Congress and became the disaster management minister Under Uddhav Thackeray in 2019. After the government collapsed in 2022 he became the leader of opposition yet again.
Wadettiwar is outspoken in his nature and gets involved in one or the other controversy all the time. However, this makes him a polarizing figure in Maharashtra politics.
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