Ashish Shelar is new Mumbai BJP chief

Young lawyer and social worker Ashish Shelar was named the new city president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an official said here.

The 41-year old Shelar is an acknowledged civic crusader and presently a member of the Maharashtra legislative council.

Shelar takes over from Raj Purohit whose three-year term has expired.

With roots in Sindhudurg district of the coastal Konkan region, Shelar had humble beginnings in a tiny tenement in the congested mill areas of central Mumbai.

He was a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the BJP's ideological parent, from his school days, and later served the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, when he led several youth and student agitations.

Shelar started his electoral politics career by getting elected as a municipal corporator from Khar, a northwest suburb of Mumbai, and rose to getting elected unopposed as a member of the legislative council last year.