Congress revival is boost to Patole in Maharashtra, against all odds

As Congress has emerged the Number-1 party in the state by winning 13 of the 17 seats allocated to it, the party’s president has become the face of excellence

MUMBAI: As Congress has emerged the Number-1 party in the state by winning 13 of the 17 seats allocated to it as an alliance partner of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the party’s president in Maharashtra Nana Patole has become the face of excellence. The turnaround in the party’s fortunes was a surprise as it was struggling to find its feet in the last decade.

Mumbai, India – May 28, 2024: President of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, Nana Patole addressing the media at Tilak Bhavan, in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

The results were also surprising because there was much optimism around Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray gaining from voters’ sympathy, given the recent history of the party’s split and Thackeray ceding power to Eknath Shinde when the latter took over the reins of the breakaway Sena. Thackeray’s party managed to garner only 9 of 21 seats. On the other hand, as the Sharad Pawar-led NCP contested on minimum seats (10), it wasn’t on political watchers’ radar, although the party managed to add numbers to the opposition coalition winning 8 seats.

Now, the spotlight is back on Patole when until recently questions were raised over his style of functioning with efforts to remove him from the office. A few months ago he was cornered when senior party leaders landed up at the party headquarters in Delhi twice to remove him from the top post. Senior party leaders were vexed as they felt Patole was not keeping them in the loop while discussing important issues – this, they said, was affecting the party’s performance. The desertion of top leaders such as Ashok Chavan also occurred at this time. However, the senior leadership expressed faith in the leader.

“Our family comes from the farming community. My parents have taught me to remain faithful to whatever I was doing. Many leaders opposed me after I was appointed the state president but I kept working honestly for the party and the result is before all of us,” Patole said.

Patote’s trump card was his insistence of getting the maximum seats from Vidarbha. As he belongs to the region, he was abreast of the anti-BJP sentiment here and capitalised on it by contesting 7 of 10 seats, and winning 5 from a single region. When the seat-share parleys were on, leaders of his party had criticised him for putting too much focus on Vidarbha, leaving other crucial seats to the allies.

After Tuesday’s turaround of fortunes, party leaders are arguing that the victory was the result of teamwork. “We were worried about our strike rate because Congress was contesting against BJP on maximum seats. But the results have displayed people’s choice – there was already an atmosphere favouring Congress,” said a senior Congress leader who did not wish to be named.

Another leader asserted, “Who would have thought Shobha Bachhav would win the Dhule Lok Sabha seat against sitting BJP MP Subhash Bhamre, or Vishal Patil would win Sangli as a rebel candidate with a margin of over a lakh votes, facing BJP MP Sanjaykaka Patil and Sena (UBT) candidate Chandrahar Patil. There has been a significant shift in the voters’ choice.”

Before being appointed state Congress chief, Patole was speaker in the assembly. Ahead of the 2014 general elections, Patole quit Congress to join the BJP, contested from Bhandara-Gondia constituency and won the polls against the then union minister Praful Patel by 1,49,254 votes. After he returned to the party in 2018, the central leadership put its force behind him, ignoring naysayers.