MUMBAI: When Maharashtra revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s son Sujay failed to get the Congress ticket for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he joined the BJP and won the Ahmednagar seat by 2,77,597 votes against the NCP’s Sangram Jagtap.
This time, Jagtap is on Sujay’s side since the former is part of the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP. Yet, Sujay is facing a tough contest as his challenger is Nilesh Lanke of Sharad Pawar's NCP. Lanke resigned as NCP MLA from Parner and joined the Sharad Pawar faction to enter the poll fray.
The Ahmednagar LS seat has been a BJP bastion for the past 20 years. For the first time, it has been challenged by someone who is well connected at the grassroots level. Known for his simplicity, Lanke is just a phone call away for not just party workers but the common citizen as well.
Although the contest is between Sujay and Lanke, its roots lie in a decades-old feud between Sharad Pawar and the Vikhe Patil clan spanning three generations. Sujay’s grandfather Balasaheb Vikhe Patil and Sharad Pawar were locked in a tussle over controlling co-operative sugar factories in the region. In 1991, the then Congress leader Sharad Pawar denied Balasaheb the Ahmednagar ticket.
Ahead of 2019 polls, Radhakrishna—who was then with the Congress—had lobbied hard for Sujay’s nomination from Ahmednagar. But Pawar refused to let the constituency go to the Congress and fielded Jagtap. Both Sujay and Radhakrishna then defected to the BJP.
Sujay has a powerful family legacy. His father is a minister, as was his grandfather. His great grandfather Vithalrao started Asia’s first co-operative sugar factory at Pravaranagar in Ahmednagar district. Besides, Sujay has a vast network of medical and engineering colleges in the district.
The Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency has six assembly segments, two of which elected BJP MLAs, one is held by Ajit Pawar’s NCP and the rest by the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP.
For Sujay, his father Radhakrishna’s constituency Rahat falling in the Shirdi Lok Sabha seat is a disadvantage. He also committed the blunder of mocking Lanke’s lack of fluency in English and Hindi. It was seen as an affront by the Marathi speaking masses. Lanke craftily turned it into a rich versus common citizen narrative. Besides, Lanke’s free Covid relief centres at Parner have good recall value.
Sujay is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma, the party’s electoral machinery and his own network for his re-election. When the poll verdict is announced on June 4, the Ahmednagar outcome would be keenly watched. Ahmednagar goes to polls on May 13.