Mumbai: In a major blow to the Congress in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday inducted Sujay Vikhe Patil, the son of Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, into its ranks and promised to field him from his preferred Ahmednagar Parliamentary constituency.
The ticket for the constituency, which has a sitting BJP MP, has traditionally been with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Congress-NCP seat-sharing pact.
While the development comes as an embarrassment to the opposition, barely a month before the Lok Sabha elections, this is not the first time that a Vikhe Patil has defected for political gains as the family is no stranger to rebellion.
“Unlike many old Congress families, the Vikhe Patils have never been strong loyalists of the Gandhi family,” political commentator Pratap Asbe told ThePrint. “Congress leaders tried their best to make Sujay Vikhe Patil understand, and even work out a possible alternative for him to contest on an NCP ticket. But looks like he had made up his mind.”
After his induction into the BJP, Sujay Vikhe Patil, a neurosurgeon by qualification, said, “I had to take a decision going against my father and his wishes. I still don’t know how supportive my father and my mother are of my decision.
“Keeping this in mind, I now have a huge responsibility to give my best to the BJP. This is Sujay Vikhe Patil’s personal stand.”
A family history of rebellion
The Vikhe Patil family, which comes from the politically-volatile Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, pioneered the state’s strong cooperative movement.
Vithalrao Vikhe Patil, Radhakrishna’s grandfather, formed India’s first cooperative sugar factory. His son, Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, was a Congress MP, who in his initial years joined a rebel Congress faction with former Congress CM Shankarrao Chavan.
Radhakrishna, the current leader of the opposition, is Balasaheb’s son. Even he has switched between parties. Radhakrishna was elected as a Congress MLA when in 1997, he joined the Shiv Sena and was inducted as an agriculture minister in the Manohar Joshi-led Shiv Sena-BJP state government.
Later that year, Balasaheb too switched to the Shiv Sena and was elected as an MP on a Shiv Sena ticket in 1998. He joined the National Democratic Alliance government first as a minister of state for finance and later as heavy industries minister. Both father and son later returned to the Congress party.
Radhakrishna, who has served in the state cabinets of former Congress CMs Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, was named the leader of the opposition after the Shiv Sena joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government post the 2014 state polls.
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‘Radhakrishna is known to be close to the ruling disposition’
A senior Congress leader who did not wish to be named said Radhakrishna is known to be close to BJP Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
“Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil has been close to the chief minister and there used to often be talk that we are not taking on the government as strongly as we should on some critical issues,” the leader said.
Radhakrishna had earlier ruffled feathers in the Congress when he heaped praise on Fadnavis during a public speech at Shirdi in 2017 and indicated that he was on better terms with the current BJP-Shiv Sena cabinet than the previous Congress-NCP one. He later clarified that he was quoted out of context.
While Radhakrishna did not make any official comment on his son’s departure to the BJP, a senior Congress source said he might offer his resignation from the leader of the opposition post on ethical grounds.
Sujay’s defection has also sparked speculation within political circles that his father too may switch sides before the assembly polls.
On Tuesday, CM Fadnavis said, “I know that Sujay had to take this decision by going against his family. But, I am sure that one day or the other, his family will also understand that this decision was right.”
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Pawars versus Vikhe Patils
The Pawar and Vikhe Patil political families have always had an uneasy relationship. Balasaheb was a strong supporter of former CM Shankarrao Chavan, who was seen as a major political challenger to Sharad Pawar.
In 1991, Balasaheb filed a petition against then Congress MP Yashwantrao Gadakh and accused Pawar of indulging in corrupt electoral practices to make him win. The case went on to the Supreme Court, which ultimately cleared him.
The political rivalry continued among the next generation of the two families too.
In 2011, Radhakrishna accused Ajit Pawar, the senior Pawar’s nephew, of driving a political agenda against his family through the government machinery. The state electricity distribution company, which Ajit steered then as state energy minister and deputy chief minister, had asked the state power regulator to take action against a rural electricity cooperative controlled by the Vikhe Patils for ballooning power arrears.
Radhakrishna is said to have appealed to Sharad Pawar to vacate the Ahmednagar seat for his son, Sujay, to contest. Pawar’s staunch refusal during his press conference in Pune Monday was, perhaps, the final nail in the coffin.
Not only a huge sugar factory and distillery but also a sprawling educational complex. Khandaani log hain.