Bitter tussle between Fadnavis and Rohit Pawar

With Rohit Pawar insistent on Bhimanwar’s ouster and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ruling out any such action, there was no middle ground to end the agitation, at least till Sunday evening

The agitation by the aspirants of state civil services seeking resignation of Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) chairman Vivek Bhimanwar for paper leaks has become a tricky issue on both sides—the Fadnavis government as well as NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar, who is leading the agitation in Pune.

Bitter tussle between Fadnavis and Rohit Pawar

With Rohit Pawar insistent on Bhimanwar’s ouster and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ruling out any such action, there was no middle ground to end the agitation, at least till Sunday evening. The whole episode has also become a bitter tussle between the Fadnavis government and Pawar with the latter directly accusing the CM of shielding Bhimanwar, as they are friends.

When he became chief minister for the first time in 2014, Fadnavis appointed Bhimanwar — then a sales tax officer in Nagpur — as a personal secretary in the chief minister’s office (CMO). In December 2025, the Fadnavis government appointed him as MPSC chairman.

Fadnavis has said that he does not have the powers to remove the chairman of the MPSC as he is appointed by the Governor and he has already written to Governor Jishnu Dev Verma to initiate a probe against the MPSC head’s functioning. He has also been pointing out that the paper leaks happened before Bhimanwar took over as the chairman. This has also led to a verbal war between the ruling BJP leaders and Pawar. The Fadnavis camp does not want to antagonize the MPSC aspirants who mostly come from western Maharashtra and Marathwada and their agitation could become a politically sensitive issue but they are targeting Rohit Pawar accusing him of using the students’ agitation to establish himself as a leader.

The two battles in western Maharashtra

Elections for two cooperative bodies in western Maharashtra have grabbed the attention of the entire political circle.

Kolhapur is witnessing a fierce battle for the control of Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers Federation which owns the popular milk brand Gokul. The Federation has over 500,000 farmers and milk producers as its members, who will be voting a new board of directors to run the milk cooperative, which had a turnover of र4,185 crore in 2025-26. The contest is between a panel affiliated to ruling Mahayuti with NCP minister Hasan Mushrif leading it. On the other hand, senior Congress leader Satej Patil has promoted a panel affiliated to the opposition parties. He is supported by farmers’ leader Raju Shetti. Currently, Kolhapur district is witnessing an intense campaign between the two sides.

In Baramati, the fight is over the election of the governing body for Someshwar Cooperative sugar factory. Deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar and her two sons, Parth and Jay, are trying to retain the control of the prestigious sugar cooperative in a triangular contest between panels promoted by them, Purushottam Jagtap who used to run the cooperative earlier as a close aide of Ajit Pawar and a third one promoted by Yugendra Pawar--nephew of Ajit Pawar who had contested last assembly election against the latter.

The outcome of both these elections will show whether leaders from the ruling parties are holding their forts or the opposition leaders are wresting control of the politically significant cooperative bodies in western Maharashtra.

Headache for BJP leadership in Nagpur

The election for the Nagpur graduates’ constituency in the state legislative council has become a headache for the state BJP leadership. The party fielded Sudhakar Kohale to wrest the seat back from Congress’ Abhijit Vanjari who won it in 2020. However, former BJP legislator Anil Sole has rebelled against the party and is contesting as an independent. He has got the support of another former BJP legislator Girish Vyas. Significantly, both the rebels are considered close to the RSS which has its headquarters in Nagpur. The BJP held the seats for decades and has been represented by Nitin Gadkari and Fadnavis’ father Gangadharrao Fadnavis in the past. In 2020, Vanjari registered a surprise victory. This time, the state BJP leadership is pulling out all the stops to win it back but the rebels have queered the pitch. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to visit Nagpur soon to pacify the rebels.