Ramdas Athawale (original) (raw)

Ramdas Bandu Athawale (Marathi pronunciation: [äʈʰʋəle]) (born 25 December 1959) is an Indian politician and social activist from Maharashtra. He is the president of the Republican Party of India (A), a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and has its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by B. R. Ambedkar. Currently, he is the Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in Second Modi ministry and represents Maharashtra in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India's Parliament. Previously he was Lok Sabha MP from Pandharpur.