Omji Bhai, as O.P. Mathur is known within the Sangh Parivar, could not adequately impress Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, but the 62-year-old BJP point man for Maharashtra is no novice to the heat and dust of politics. Now a close confidant of PM Modi, Mr. Mathur was close in the race for the party presidentship that finally went to Amit Shah.
Mr. Mathur is the man leading the BJP team negotiating the seat-sharing arrangement with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
Mr. Mathur, who belongs to Rajasthan, was the party’s election manager in Gujarat for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and has now been put in charge of Maharashtra. Associated with the RSS since 1972, Mr. Mathur has been managing the BJP units in Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. He was the party’s State president in Rajasthan from 2008 to 2009 but resigned after the party’s humiliating defeat in the Assembly elections then. He is considered closely associated with the marble industry.
Mr. Mathur was groomed in politics by the former Vice-President and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
