Mungantiwar rises like a phoenix from political ashes, does the unthinkable

Chandrapur: For Ballarpur MLA and BJP veteran Sudhir Mungantiwar, the Chandrapur mayoral election marked his rise like a phoenix from the political ashes. Securing the mayor and deputy mayor's post without being the single largest party, is attributed to Mungantiwar's political acumen and street smart-political manoeuvring that caught Congress napping, despite having the numbers.Mungantiwar's political stock began to decline the moment he was nominated for Chandrapur's Lok Sabha seat in 2024. While such a nomination would be considered a 'peak', for Mungantiwar it meant moving away from state politics where he was among the key players. As PM Narendra Modi addressed a rally for him, Mungantiwar seemed all set to stomp home, but ended up losing to Congress' Pratibha Dhanorkar. Worse still, the defeat came with a humiliating margin of 2.6 lakh votes. Few months later, Maharashtra went to polls and Mungantiwar faced another hurdle, entry of Independent sitting Chandrapur MLA, Kishor Jorgewar, in BJP.
Unlike the subdued dissent displayed by BJP netas under the Modi-Amit Shah leadership, Mungantiwar did not mince words in criticizing the decision. He even went to Delhi to stop Jorgewar's entry, but efforts failed, thus bringing his political stature further down. While he won the assembly polls in October 2024, Mungantiwar was shocked to find himself out of the cabinet, thus continuing his downward spiral.In 2025, the situation did not get any better with the BJP brass busy handling the inter-alliance dynamics more than giving in to demands of their own. And it was probably this political isolation which led Mungantiwar to change tactics in the Nagpur winter assembly session in December. His speeches, his questions on the floor of the House resembled more of an Opposition leader rather than someone from the ruling benches. Probably to allow Mungantiwar some leeway and give him space, the civic body polls held last month saw the veteran leader having more say in selection of candidates.But after results were declared, Mungantiwar's ‘street fighter' mode was activated. The back-room politics, drawing up strategy against-all-odds is something which veterans like Mungantiwar revel in, and he rose to the occasion.His target was reaching the magic figure of 34, with just 23 of his own and 1 one from pre-poll ally Shinde Sena. The kingmaker, Sena UBT-Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) alliance, was clearly the kingmaker and its state-level partner Congress had made the first move by offering the mayor post to UBT. It almost seemed that the deal was sealed until Mungantiwar saw an opening.This was the rift between Congress factions in Chandrapur headed by MLA Vijay Wadettiwar and MP Dhanorkar, as both wanted to call the shots in the civic body on behalf of the party. This in turn meant UBT did not get the commitment it wanted on the mayor's post.As the date for mayor polls neared, Mungantiwar knew the timing was perfect. He offered UBT the mayor's post on a 50:50 tenure sharing basis and gave away the deputy mayor's post to an Independent, Prashant Danao. The other independent, Nandu Nagarkar, too sided with BJP and sources say, he too is likely to be adjusted in the standing committee. On Tuesday, as BJP scraped past with a one-vote win, it actually told the story of one man — the one who survived and bounced back against all odds.