The Week India – June 30, 2019

92 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

POLITICS

MAHARASHTRA

Switch hit

Critics say the Vikhe Patils are power

hungry, always chasing positions of

influence to keep their Ahmednagar

fiefdom intact

BY DNYANESH JATHAR

O

n June 17, when

Radhakrishna Vikhe

Patil, who was sworn in

a day earlier as minister

for housing, came to

the assembly, opposition members

shouted “Aayaram Gayaram, Jai

Shri Ram”. They were referring to his

entry into the cabinet, less than two

weeks after his resignation from the

Congress.

Vikhe Patil, a seasoned player with

more than three decades of political

experience, did not pay much atten-

tion to the sloganeering. That Vikhe

Patil would dump the Congress was

clear right from the day his son,

Sujay, chose to contest the Lok Sabha

elections on a BJP ticket. Vikhe Patil

had tried to get him the Congress

ticket from Ahmednagar constitu-

ency, which was with the Nationalist

Congress Party. He had even urged

the party’s central leadership to get

the NCP to exchange it for another

seat. The Pawars, however, refused

to budge, although Vikhe Patil had

requested Sharad Pawar to end the

political rivalry between the two

families and make a fresh start.

The BJP, which spotted an oppor-

tunity, deputed Irrigation Minister

Girish Mahajan, a close confidant of

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,

to approach Sujay. After Sujay got

the BJP ticket, Vikhe Patil, who was

leader of opposition in the legislative

assembly, announced that he would

not campaign for the NCP candidate

from Ahmednagar. Since then, it was

a only matter of time that he quit the

Congress and joined the Fadnavis

cabinet.

Vikhe Patil’s departure is a big

blow to the Congress, which is yet

to recover from the crushing defeat

in the Lok Sabha elections. The

party organisation is a shambles and

workers are demoralised. To make

things worse, at least five or six more

Congress legislators like Abdul Sattar,

Jaykumar Gore and Kalidas Kolamb-

kar are keen to emulate Vikhe Patil

and cross over to the BJP.

The Vikhe Patils have dominated

Maharashtra’s socio-political space

for more than five decades. The

family first came into prominence

when Vithalrao Vikhe Patil started

Asia’s first cooperative sugar factory

at Loni in Ahmednagar district.

Vithalrao laid the foundation of the

family’s cooperative empire. Today,

it comprises prominent educational

institutions, sugar factories and dairy

and farmers’ clubs.

Members of the Vikhe Patil clan

have never shied away from switch-

ing parties. Vithalrao’s son Balasaheb

was the first rebel in the family. In his

younger days, Balasaheb was a com-

munist. He then joined the Congress

and became a zilla parishad member

and legislator. When Indira Gandhi

imposed Emergency, he quit the

Congress and joined the Maharash-

tra Samajwadi Congress. He returned

to the Congress following Indira’s

massive victory in the 1980 elections.

He later set up the Congress Forum

for Action with the support of 45 MPs

when Rajiv Gandhi was Congress

president. After his defeat in the 1991

Lok Sabha elections, he accused

Sharad Pawar of sabotaging

his election. Thus began the

rivalry between the Vikhe

Patils and the Pawars.

Vithalrao, who stayed

away from active politics,

was always close to the

Congress ideology. Said

political analyst Abhay

Deshpande, “It was

The departure of Radhakrishna

Vikhe Patil (in pic) is a big blow

to the Congress, which is yet to

recover from the crushing defeat

in the Lok Sabha elections.