Mumbai: An eleventh-hour withdrawal by a member of the royal family of Kolhapur nominated on a Congress ticket for the upcoming polls in Maharashtra has come as a royal embarrassment for the party. The matter has turned into a potboiler involving an alleged insult of the Kolhapur royals, a Congress leader’s emotional outburst and taunts by ally Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
Madhurimaraje Chhatrapati, Congress’s official candidate for Kolhapur North constituency and daughter-in-law of the party’s MP Chhatrapati Shahu Shahaji, withdrew her nomination, saying that the family was uncomfortable with her candidature at the cost of the ambitions of party worker Rajesh Latkar, who had been initially picked for the seat, but was denied the ticket to accommodate her.
The family also said that it did not think it was fair for two members of the household to be involved in electoral politics.
However, this left Satej ‘Bunty’ Patil, chief of the Congress Kolhapur district unit and member of Maharashtra legislative council, angry and led him to express his disbelief on camera to party workers. Now, the party has decided to support Latkar, who is contesting as an independent candidate.
“We have officially supported Rajesh Latkar now. And there won’t be any issue as such as he belongs to our party and we trust him. All is well now,” Patil told ThePrint.
Offering an explanation in a letter on 5 November, Chhatrapati Shahu wrote, “Madhurimaraje took back her nomination because we did not want to upset a common karyakarta of Congress. Other than this, there was no reason to withdraw her nomination.”
He added, “Although there is no official Congress candidate now from Kolhapur North, but Rajesh Latkar is a Congress worker and of Congress ideology. So, working to ensure that he wins will be our target.”
This turn of events has led to rival Bharatiya Janata Party taking jibes at the Congress, besides inviting criticism from even Shiv Sena (UBT), the party’s partner in the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance.
BJP leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told media persons, “Whatever happened in Kolhapur North is very shocking. But one thing is clear, Congress has now disappeared from there.”
MP Sanjay Raut of Sena (UBT) said, “During our seat sharing meeting, I had fought for seven days to get this seat because Shiv Sena candidates have won there many times. But they did not give us the seat. And today, what has happened is very shocking. But we will still follow the alliance dharm.”
However, on Tuesday, chief Uddhav Thackeray launched the party campaign from Kolhapur, where he entrusted senior Congress leader Patil to oversee the campaign across the region.
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How the drama unfolded
When the Congress announced its third list of candidates for Maharashtra assembly elections on 26 October, the ticket for Kolhapur North seat was given to Latkar. However, two days later, he was replaced by Madhurimaraje.
The rationale behind the move, as explained by the Congress, was that there was some opposition to Latkar’s candidature within the party as well as among Shiv Sena (UBT) workers, who were interested in securing the seat for their party.
Within Congress, there were many aspirants for the ticket, who were displeased with Latkar’s candidature, while many were upset that a karyakarta was being given the ticket. That is why the candidate was changed, a senior party functionary and Patil’s close aide told ThePrint.
This was also confirmed by Chhatrapati Shahu in his letter Tuesday. “We were of the opinion that within the same family, there should not be two candidates. So, Madhurima did not seek the ticket initially. However, when Latkar’s candidature was announced, there was opposition. That is why in such rare circumstances, we had accepted the nomination,” he wrote.
He further explained that the family had decided that they would contest only if Latkar took back his nomination, which he filed as an independent candidate later. Accordingly, they had even held a meeting with Latkar’s family, the letter said.
“This was conveyed to the Congress high command as well. But since he did not take his nomination back, we withdrew at the last minute as a mark of respect for Congress workers,” Chhatrapati Shahu wrote.
On 4 November, the last day for withdrawal of nominations, Madhurimaraje arrived at the office of the district collectorate, along with her husband, former MLA Malojiraje Chhatrapati, and father-in-law Chhatrapati Shahu, with only 10 minutes left for the deadline to come into effect, and took back her nomination form.
Soon after, a video filmed at the collector’s office came into circulation on social media, where a visibly upset Patil—who had handled Kolhapur MP Chhatrapati Shahu’s campaign for the Lok Sabha polls—was heard saying, “This is wrong. You should not have done this… If you didn’t have the courage to contest polls, you shouldn’t have entered the race. I would have shown my power.”
As the video surfaced online, Patil’s remarks were interpreted as an insult to MP Chhatrapati Shahu.
However, addressing the issue in his letter, the MP wrote: “After the withdrawal, Bunty Patil expressed himself in front of the workers. And because of this, the Opposition is claiming that I was insulted. In reality, no such thing has happened. There is no difference of opinion between us.”
Patil’s emotional appeal
After the video clip went viral, Patil met Congress workers Monday night, clips of which were shared by party workers from Kolhapur on social media. He was seen crying profusely, while party workers chanted slogans in his support.
“You are aware of whatever has happened. I don’t want to speak more about it. I just want you to give me more strength because position, power and prestige are nothing, but your support matters to me,” he told party members, who had gathered at his bungalow in Kolhapur.
He also recounted the sequence of events on 4 November.
“I got a call at around 2:36 pm from Malojiraje Chhatrapati and he informed me that Madhurimaraje is taking back her nomination. I told him not to do so because we had changed the candidate in just five hours and this happened only because Congress high command trusted me,” he said.
Patil said that he attempted to assure Malojiraje that he would take responsibility for everything. “Then I immediately switched off my phone, got in the car and rushed to the collector’s office.”
Referring to the video clip from the collector’s office, he added, “Then what happened, you all saw it. The video has surfaced online. But I didn’t know what came on to me. The situation was beyond my control and I became overwhelmed. I held his hand to stop him as it didn’t seem right to me. To prevent further escalation, a few people advised me to get in the car and leave.”
Patil also said that he did not know why such a decision had been taken by the family.
The senior Congress functionary quoted above also said that one of the reasons behind this could have been to challenge the growing power of Patil in Kolhapur and Maharashtra. “This might be an angle, which Bunty Patil needs to look at. However, it is unlikely that this was the plan of the royal family… but definitely someone within the Congress.”
Later, on Tuesday, after deliberations with MVA allies and Congress’s top leadership, Patil announced his support to independent candidate Latkar.
In a press conference in Kolhapur, Latkar thanked Patil and MVA leaders for their support. “I thank all the leaders for supporting me and I promise that I will not betray your trust,” Latkar said, swearing his allegiance to MVA.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)