Shrikant Jichkar

Shrikant Jichkar (Marathi: श्रीकांत जिचकार)(September 14, 1954 - June 2, 2004) was an Indian politician and member of the Congress Party.

Personal life

Jichkar was born into a Marathi family of wealthy farmers in Aajangaon near Katol in Nagpur district, Maharashtra, India. His wife was named Rajashri, and the couple had two children. On June 3, 2004, he died of injuries sustained after his car slammed into an oncoming bus at Dhamana Shivar, about 40 kilometres from Nagpur.

Political career

In 1977, Jichkar was elected President of the Nagpur University Student's Council. In 1980 he was elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, becoming the youngest MLA in the country at 25^{[citation needed]}, and subsequently became a government minister holding fourteen different portfolios simultaneously^{[citation needed]}. After twelve years in the Maharashtra legislature, he was elected to the Indian Parliament in 1992 where he served as an MP until 1998. In 1999 he lost the election to the Lok Sabha by a slender margin of 3000 votes in an electorate of 1.4 million voters.

He began his political career as a student and youth leader. He worked on several committees of the state and central government, including the Parliamentary Standing committee on Finance; the Patents Committee; the Planning Board; the Resources Mobilization Committee; the Taxation Reforms Committee, and the High Power Committee on Irrigation and Transport. He served as a member of the legislative assembly of Maharashtra from 1980 to 1985, a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from 1986-1992, and member of Rajya Sabha between 5 July 1992 and 4 July 1998. He also contested the Lok Sabha election in 2004 but lost to Shiv Sena's Subodh Mohite. He held ministerial posts in almost all government departments^{[citation needed]}. He was the Minister of States in the Maharashtra government in 1982 when the policemen of the state had called a strike, and had a key role in rounding up the strike.

Hobbies

Jickhkar was also a painter, professional photographer, and stage actor. He had one of the biggest personal libraries in India with 52,000 books^{[citation needed]}. He traveled all around India speaking on economic topics and giving religious discourses. Jichkar was an active Amateur radio operator, and used the callsign VU2SJA.

One of the numerous subjects in which Jichkar had an interest was astrology^{[citation needed]} and he claimed to be able to analyse the movement of planets in a horoscope down to the last detail^{[citation needed]}.

External links

• Memorial website for Shrikant Jichkar
• Shrikant Jichkar - A gentle politician