Political Career
Shinde is a leader of the Congress Party. He is the first Scheduled Caste person to have become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He served as Chief Minister from January 18, 2003. Encouraged by Sharad Pawar, he quit his sub-inspector's job to enter politics in 1971. He contested an assembly by-election from Karmala in Solapur three years later and won by 25,000 votes. In November that year, the late V P Naik, then the chief minister, made Shinde a junior minister in his government. Shinde rejoined the Congress Party and became the finance minister in new Vasantrao Patil government. Later he won Maharashtra State Assembly elections in 1978, 1980, 1985 and 1990.
Shinde was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra during July 1992 to March 1998. He acted as Sonia Gandhi's campaign manager in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh in 1999. In 2002, Shinde contested the election for the post of Vice-President of India against the National Democratic Alliance's candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and lost. On October 30, 2004, Shinde was appointed the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. He replaced Surjit Singh Barnala, who became the Governor of Tamil Nadu. He served as governor for slightly more than one year before resigning and leaving office on January 29, 2006.
Shinde was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha for second time from Maharashtra on March 20, 2006. Shinde became the leader of the house of the Lok Sabha after Pranab Mukherjee was elected President.
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