JIVA PANDU GAVIT

CPI (M) leader and Kalwan MLA

Seven-time MLA from Kalwan in Nashik, Jiva Pandu Gavit is a CPI(M) leader and the only legislator to represent leftist parties in Maharashtra’s Legislative Assembly. Gavit, who is from the tribal community, prefers to keep a low profile and is the brain behind the Long March. He is also the main reason so many tribals have joined in the agitation — they are fighting for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act,2006, that promised them repossession of land that they had been tilling for generations and had been taken over by the forest department