At the stroke of midnight... when the world is ringing in the new year... Ek Marathi Manoos is launching the inaugural edition of MahaPol Powerlist! Given below is the 'Top 10 Hall of Fame'
click on the image to see larger version
The complete list of 25 most powerful politicians is as follows -
1. Sharad Pawar (68) NCP
2. Bal Thackeray (82) SS
3. Ashok Chavan (50) INC
4. Raj Thackeray (39) MNS
5. Gopinath Munde (59) BJP
6. Narayan Rane (56) INC
7. Chhagan Bhujbal (60) NCP
8. Ajitdada Pawar (49) NCP
9. Uddhav Thackeray (47) SS
10. Vilasrao Deshmukh (63) INC
11. R R Patil (52) NCP
12. Nitin Gadkari (60) BJP
13. Praful Patel (53) NCP
14. Ramdas Athavale (55) RPI+
15. Prakash Ambedkar (51) RPI+
16. Murli Deora (71) INC
17. Gurudas Kamat (51) INC
18. Vinay Kore (37) JSS
19. Sushilkumar Shinde (66) INC
20. Manohar Joshi (71) SS
21. Vijaysingh Mohite Patil (64) NCP
22. Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil (76) INC
23. Vinod Tawde (45) BJP
24. Jayant Patil (46) NCP
25. N D Patil (78) PWP
Party Code
BJP – Bharatiya Janata Party
INC – Indian National Congress
JSS – Jana Surajya Shakti
MNS – Maharashtra Navanirman Sena
NCP – Nationalist Congress Party
PWP – Peasants & Workers Party (Shetkari Kamgar Paksha)
RPI+ – Republican Party of India (any faction)
SS – Shiv Sena
1. Sharad Pawar (68) NCP
2. Bal Thackeray (82) SS
3. Ashok Chavan (50) INC
4. Raj Thackeray (39) MNS
5. Gopinath Munde (59) BJP
6. Narayan Rane (56) INC
7. Chhagan Bhujbal (60) NCP
8. Ajitdada Pawar (49) NCP
9. Uddhav Thackeray (47) SS
10. Vilasrao Deshmukh (63) INC
11. R R Patil (52) NCP
12. Nitin Gadkari (60) BJP
13. Praful Patel (53) NCP
14. Ramdas Athavale (55) RPI+
15. Prakash Ambedkar (51) RPI+
16. Murli Deora (71) INC
17. Gurudas Kamat (51) INC
18. Vinay Kore (37) JSS
19. Sushilkumar Shinde (66) INC
20. Manohar Joshi (71) SS
21. Vijaysingh Mohite Patil (64) NCP
22. Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil (76) INC
23. Vinod Tawde (45) BJP
24. Jayant Patil (46) NCP
25. N D Patil (78) PWP
Party Code
BJP – Bharatiya Janata Party
INC – Indian National Congress
JSS – Jana Surajya Shakti
MNS – Maharashtra Navanirman Sena
NCP – Nationalist Congress Party
PWP – Peasants & Workers Party (Shetkari Kamgar Paksha)
RPI+ – Republican Party of India (any faction)
SS – Shiv Sena
To understand the methodology used for the ranking click here.
The figure in bracket indicates the age of the politician.
Analysis of the MahaPol Top 25 Powerlist (Jan 09)
Ministers in the current Central Government: 4
Ministers in the current Maharashtra Government: 6
Ex/ Current Chief Ministers: 5
Sugar Barons: 10 (Top 3 barons are present in the list)
Regional Representation:
- Mumbai: 9 (And people say Mumbai is neglected!)
- Konkan (Beyond MMR): 1 (Rane is the lone Konkani)
- Western Maharashtra: 10 (This region still dictates!)
- Marathwada: 3 (Representation is low in quantity but high in quality)
- Vidarbha: 2 (Very poor representation. There should have been 6 Vidarbhites in this list.)
Party wise breakup
- Indian National Congress: 7
- Nationalist Congress Party: 7
- Bharatiya Janta Party: 3
- Shiv Sena: 3
- Republican Party of India (All factions): 2
- Maharashtra Navanirman Sena: 1
- Jana Surajya Shakti: 1
Caste wise break up
- Maratha: 11
- Brahman: 3
- Kayastha: 3
- OBC: 2
- Scheduled Caste: 2
- Scheduled Tribe: 2
- Non Marathi: 2
Some interesting things to note:
- NCP emerges as the strongest party with Sharad Pawar being the uncrowned king.
- No woman makes it to the top 25… glass ceiling in politics!
- Balasaheb Thackeray is the oldest at 82
- Vinay Kore is the youngest at 37
- 3 Thackerays make it to the ‘Top 10 Hall of Fame’ without contesting a single election... Remote control zindabad!
- Besides the Thackerays, others who have never been ministers in any government are Ambedkar, Kamat & Tawde.
- Not a single Muslim leader makes it to the top 25 – Even Antulay with his ‘Green Card’ falls short.
- And above all... Had this list been made a month ago... Ashok Chavan would not have featured in it!
MahaPol can be directly contacted on mahapol25@gmail.com
16 comments:
Nice to see Raj & Uddhav next to each other in the image!
Amazing piece of work. Do keep up the good work!
Thanks for ur analysis. I saw the methodology used for this. Raj Thackeray can not rate higher than Narayan Rane, Gopinath Munde, RR Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal.
Can you explain me how he rates above these politicians in your analysis ?
Unlike Rane, Munde, Bhujbal & R R Patil, Raj Thackeray is the supreme boss of his party. In the elections of nine municipal corporations (2006), MNS’s votes were 53% of Shiv Sena and 74% of BJP. Please note that MNS was only a year old then. This shows MNS has got cognizable presence in body politic of Maharashtra, not to speak of its increased strength in the last one year.
Of the 25 politicians in the MAHAPOL POWERLIST, only Raj Thackeray (besides his uncle) has made it to the cover page of India Today… For media, Raj is of greater news value than all these four put together.
In terms of crowd pulling, he is second to none… even in Vidarbha where his party has negligible base, he was able to attract huge crowds. Add to that overt and covert support from Marathi intelligentsia and his deep pockets… Raj is obviously in a position of strength!
But if he is not able to maintain the momentum in the coming year, his ranking is sure to slide.
i wonder! where is Pantagrao Kadam(though i dislike him)?
Good work guys.
This is Fake
Guys - I think the methodology is pretty robust. Probably Mahapol needs to get into details for each ranking.
@ Anon
If you think this is fake then why dont you give your list?
23 Marathi politicians in the list but only Raj is striving for Marathi Manoos... rest are interested in appeasing the non-marathi voters!
@ Sachin
For a politician, politics should be his primary occupation to be taken seriously. In Dr. Patangrao Kadam’s case, Bharti Vidyapeeth is ‘major’ and Politics is ‘minor’. Unless he changes his priorities, he can’t make it to MahaPol Powerlist!
I think Mahapol would work better if it was a different site by itself :)
The way I look at Maharashtra politics, there are only two powerful persons in Maharashtra - Sharad Pawar and Bal Thackeray. The others don't count because they have clout for the official positions they occypy. To credit Ashok Chavan with 50 points is inappropriate; he is new to this league and has a lot to prove yet.
Mahesh Vijapurkar
Mahapol agrees with the second point raised by Mr. Mahesh Vijapurkar that Ashok Chavan is a newbie. In fact the last point in the post clearly states that had Mahapol Powerlist been published on 1st December 2008, Chavan would not have been made it to the Top 25 list! But as stated in Mahabharat, “राजा परं दैवतम” - The king wields the ultimate power… obviously the CM’s post has catapulted him to #3. Whether he retains this rank will depend on how he uses the position to assert his power!
Position of authority does not necessarily translate into 'power' for one needs to know how to weild it with surgical precision. Maharashtra has had its own share of such, like B Bhosle who was known more for his ability to joke than anything else.
Even powerful chairs can be weakened by the occupier. But yes, like I said in my earlier post, he should show he can do something. Everyone has the potential till he succeeds, or fails!
Argue that!
Vinay Kore being the youngest, having his own party (which is growing at a phenomenal rate) and not to mention the tremendous clout he carries due to his good work in the Kolhapur district should be in the top 10 at least!
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