Born on December 2, 1937, in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, Joshi obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) in Mumbai.His political career began with his involvement in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, but he joined the Shiv Sena after being enamoured by the appeal of party founder Bal Thackeray’s “sons of the soil” campaign.Joshi began his career as a teacher and entered politics in 1967.Known for his organisational skills, Joshi started his electoral politics by becoming a councillor in Mumbai during 1968-70 and the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Mumbai municipal corporation in 1970.He was the Mayor of Mumbai during 1976-1977.As the mayor, Joshi also ran a campaign ‘Clean Mumbai-Green Mumbai’.Joshi had the “several firsts” tag of the Shiv Sena.He was Sena’s first Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) in 1972, the party’s first Leader of Opposition, its first Chief Minister and then the Lok Sabha speaker.After serving three terms in the Legislative Council, Joshi was elected to the Maharashtra Assembly in 1990 and was the Leader of the Opposition during 1990-91.Joshi Sir, as he was popularly known, was the first chief minister of the undivided Shiv Sena and held the post during 1995-1999.While the senior Thackeray boasted of how he remote-controlled the Sena-led government in the state, it was chief minister Manohar Joshi at the other end who executed his decisions for nearly four years.
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