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Critics say the Vikhe Patils are power hungry, always chasing positions of influence to keep their Ahmednagar fiefdom intact

- Dnyanesh Jathar

On 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 attention 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 constituency, 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 opportunity, 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 Kolambkar are keen to emulate Vikhe Patil and cross over to the BJP.