5-time MP Mohan Rawale was known for Parel brand of Shiv Sena politics, says Raut

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut recalled Rawale’s contributions since the party’s inception and said that he was beaten and jailed by the police during agitations and spilled his blood for the party.

Five-time Shiv Sena parliamentarian Mohan Rawale passed away in Goa on Saturday morning following a cardiac arrest. He was 72.

Rawale was elected to Lok Sabha in the polls held in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004 from south central Mumbai. (Courtesy-Livemint)

Chief minister (CM) Uddhav Thackeray condoled Rawale’s demise. A statement issued by his office on Saturday evening read, “The demise of Mohan Rawale, who represented Mumbaikars in the Parliament for a long time, came as a shock. He had a connect with the common man because of his nature and style of working. The entire Shiv Sena family shares the grief of his family. May God give peace to his soul. A heartfelt tribute to former MP (Member of Parliament) Mohan Rawale.”

Shiv Sena’s chief spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut also paid his tributes to Rawale. Raut said that Rawale had represented the ‘Parel brand’ of the party’s identity, referring to the politics followed by leaders coming from the middle class mill workers’ family from the Marathi community-dominated central Mumbai. The Parel-Lalbaug area has been considered the Sena stronghold for decades.

“Mohan Rawale passed away at 4am in Goa. I used to regularly tell him to cut down on his work due to his ill health. Mohan was a Shiv Sainik of ‘Parel brand’. Despite being a five-time MP, he was very accessible; anybody on the street could stop him to speak about their issues. Mohan’s passing is really shocking for all of us. The new generation of Shiv Sena leaders must learn from him,” Raut said.

“This son of a mill worker had alone disrupted the proceedings of the Parliament once. Mohan had continuously worked for the party and was the face of the common man in the Sena,” Raut said.

Rawale was briefly expelled from the Sena in 2013 after an outburst against the leadership, alleging it was being run by middlemen. The old guard of the party, including Rawale and former CM Manohar Joshi, had developed problems after the change of leadership in the party during Bal Thackeray’s final days and after his death. He had attacked party chief Uddhav Thackeray’s personal assistant Milind Narvekar for allegedly creating a divide between the leadership and the workers.

Rawale was elected to Lok Sabha in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004 from South Central Mumbai constituency, largely dominated by textile mill workers. He had also served as the president of Sena’s youth wing Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena from 1979-1984 and had worked closely with Sena supremo the late Bal Thackeray.