Indian politician
Aravind Limbavali is an Indian politician who has served as a minister in the Karnataka government on four occasions. He is a member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly[1] and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).[2] He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly for the Mahadevapura constituency from 2008 to 2023.[3][4]
Personal life
Aravind Limbavali was born on 1 February 1967 in Bagalkot, Mysuru State, India.[citation needed]
Political career
He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) student wing as a student and has been involved with the RSS for over 35 years.[3] He has also been an active member for Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), serving as its national secretary from 1992–1995 and leading it's "Save the Campus" campaign.[5]
As a student, Libavali was part of the Karnataka team that selected five student leaders for the "Kashmir Chalo" movement. Limbavali was one of the five students chosen to raise the tri-color flag in Srinagar. The team reached Udhampur and was prevented from going further.[5]
In 2012, the Karnataka High Court stayed proceedings against Limbavali in an unauthorized construction complaint and acquitted him in the case.[6]
Limbavali was elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in the 2013 election from the Mahadevapura constituency with 110,244 votes, defeating Srinivasa A.C. of the Indian National Congress by 6149 votes.[1] He was then re-elected in the Karnataka Assembly Elections held in May 2018 from the Mahadevapura constituency.
In an interview with Dighvijay News, Limbavali defended his directing of police to remove an activist from a protest, claiming that as long as he had not raped her, the episode should not be an issue.[7][8] The use of word rape while describing the argument was met with public outcry.[9][7]
Madhya Pradesh political crisis
In March 2020, Limbavali was responsible for sequestering BJP members from Madhya Pradesh at a resort in Bengaluru, while Jyotiraditya Scindia led a mass-defection that resulted in the fall of the Kamal Nath government. The Deccan Chronicle wrote that "Limbavali, 53, is so skillful at managing horsetrading manouevres [sic] that the media here has been finding it difficult to track down exact the whereabouts of the herd of 19."[10]
References
