Jiva Pandu Gavit

Jiva Pandu Gavit is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He belongs to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and is a seven-term member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly representing Surgana and Kalwan constituencies. He was elected the Pro-tem Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 2014 and was the only leftist member of the 13th Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra.

Political career Gavit started his political career as a farmers rights advocate and became a member of the Kisan Sabha. A staunch Communist Gavit was first elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Surgana constituency in 1978 on a Communist Party of India (Marxist) ticket and narrowly beat his opponent Chavan Harichandra Deoram by four hundred votes. In the next assembly election of 1980 Gavit won against the Indian National Congress candidate Bhoye Sitaram Sayaji by about eighteen hundred votes. The 2014 elections were a referendum for the ruling Congress and the Nationalist Congress as there was a fifteen-year anti-incumbency and Gavit defeated Arjun Tulshiram Pawar by a slender margin of about four thousand votes.