Former minister and tribal leader Madhukar Pichad dies at 83

Veteran politician Madhukar Pichad died on Friday at the age of 83. He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital at Nashik after suffering brain hemorrhage on October 15. He passed away at 6:30pm on Friday, his son Vaibhav Pichad told mediapersons

MUMBAI: Veteran politician Madhukar Pichad died on Friday at the age of 83. He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital at Nashik after suffering brain hemorrhage on October 15. He passed away at 6:30pm on Friday, his son Vaibhav Pichad told mediapersons.

Former minister and tribal leader Madhukar Pichad dies at 83

A seven-term MLA from Nagar-Akole assembly constituency, Pichad was known as an aggressive tribal leader and was tribal welfare minister in successive Congress as well as Congress-NCP governments. He was leader of opposition in state assembly from 1995 to 1999 and the guardian minister of Thane district for several years.

Pichad spent the initial years of his political life in Congress and was known as a close aide of veteran leader Sharad Pawar.

Pichad came into focus when he took responsibility of the stampede at a morcha taken out by the Gowari community in Nagpur when the winter session of state legislature was in progress. A police lathicharge on a march by people from the Gowari community in November 1994 led to a stampede in which 114 died and 500 were injured. Taking responsibility of the incident, Pichad resigned as tribal welfare minister. Pawar rehabilitated him later by making him leader of opposition in state assembly, as Congress lost power in the state in 1995.

Pichad quit the Congress along with Sharad Pawar when the latter formed NCP, and went on to become the state president of the NCP, He was tribal development minister first in Congress government and later in successive Congress-NCP alliance governments till 2014. In 2019, he joined the BJP. His son Vaibhav was BJP MLA in 2014 but was defeated by NCP’s Kiran Lahamate in 2019.

Ahead of the November 20 assembly elections, senior Pichad had met Sharad Pawar and sought candidature for his son from the latter’s party. However, Pawar fielded Amit Bhangare. “I lost a good colleague. He handled important responsibilities during the formation of the NCP. I am sad that I lost a close aide,” said Pawar.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Pichad started his political career from Zilla Parishad and later remained a representative in state legislature for a long time. He handled various responsibilities, including opposition leader and minister. He was always focussed on resolving issues of the tribal population in the state. He built several facilities for tribal students and made available opportunities for higher education to them.”

Vaibhav Pichad said his father will be cremated at his native place Rajura in Ahmednagar district on Saturday.