Wrestling’s age-old connection with Maha politics

Pawar may have turned a metaphorical usage around, but even literally, wrestlers, as well as those connected with the sport, have been of huge importance in Maharashtra politics. Even today, there are wrestlers in the forthcoming Lok Sabha fray from all parties

PUNE: In November 2019, when the campaign for the Maharashtra assembly polls was at its peak, Devendra Fadnavis, then chief minister of the state, and Sharad Pawar, then president of the undivided NCP, traded barbs on, of all subjects, wrestling.

While Chandrahar Patil (left) joined Sena (UBT) earlier this month, Sharad Pawar was the president of Maharashtra State Wrestling Association for 40 years.

It began when Fadnavis declared at several rallies that there were no worthy pahalwans, the Marathi word for wrestler, among his political opponents. What he meant was heavyweight political players—but Pawar, seizing the opportunity, chose to play on his words. “Fadnavis says they have wrestlers everywhere. I say they are all kids who do not know how to wrestle. He is trying to tell this to a person who is president of the Maharashtra State Wrestling Association,” he had retorted.

Pawar may have turned a metaphorical usage around, but even literally, wrestlers, as well as those connected with the sport, have been of huge importance in Maharashtra politics. Even today, there are wrestlers in the forthcoming Lok Sabha fray from all parties—the BJP’s Ramdas Tadas from Wardha and Murlidhar Mohol from Pune and the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s candidate from Sangli, Chandrahar Patil.

Tadas heads the Maharashtra State Wrestling Association, which Pawar had helmed for 40 years till July 2022, when the Wrestling Federation of India dissolved the state body and eventually reconstituted it with new members. The MP, who won the Vidarbha Kustiveer title four times, believes that wrestlers and politicians share a common bond. “Both want to work for their region or country,” he said. “Also, since wrestlers are perceived as honest by society, politicians like to rope them into their field. I still consider my real identity that of a wrestler rather than a politician.”

In Maharashtra, wrestling is an immensely popular sport in rural areas, and many wrestlers or leaders heading sport bodies venture into politics to leverage their popularity and grassroots connections. So much so that when Patil, a two-time winner of the Maharashtra Kesari wrestling championship, joined the Shiv Sena (UBT) on March 12, party chief Uddhav Thackeray hinted at his candidature from the Sangli parliamentary seat within a week, and subsequently announced it officially.

“Balasaheb Thackeray had good relations with Hind Kesari wrestler Maruti Mane. Now we have a Maharashtra Kesari against whom no one will dare to fight,” said Uddhav. The Maharashtra Kesari is an annual wrestling championship, organised by the Maharashtra Kustigir Parishad. It is the Maharashtra Kesari and Hind Kesari competitions that decide the state and national champions in wrestling.

Chandrahar Patil, like most wrestlers, comes from an agrarian family, and says he was preparing to contest the Lok Sabha elections for one year. “I come from a poor family,” he said. “Having excelled as a wrestler, I now want to contribute to Sangli and the nation by getting elected as an MP.” Patil was earlier approached by the BJP, followed by the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. However, he decided to join the Sena (UBT) on the invitation of party leader Sanjay Raut. Before this, he had won the Sangli zilla parishad elections on an NCP ticket.

Murlidhar Mohol, the BJP’s candidate for the Pune parliamentary seat, practised wrestling in Pune and Kolhapur as a student before joining politics as a worker of the BJP’s youth wing. After the party announced his candidature, among the first things Mohol did was to organise a wrestlers’ meet. “Wrestlers are closely related to the red soil and are part of my family,” he said. “They have now united and are preparing for my campaign. I am extremely happy that my family of wrestlers has come together for this.”

Deputy chief minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar too has pinned his hopes on wrestlers, organising another gathering of wrestlers from Pune district. “Maharashtra has a great legacy of wrestlers and I am here to seek your support in all four constituencies of Pune district, namely Pune, Baramati, Shirur, and Maval,” he announced.

Baramati, a partially rural constituency, is where Ajit’s wife Sunetra Pawar is all set to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Be it Baramati, Shirur, Maval or other rural constituencies of western Maharashtra, traditional wrestling tournaments attract a large number of spectators, with those in the ring enjoying a lot of respect among villagers. Ajit Pawar hopes that the wrestlers can sway voters in his favour.

While wrestlers mostly come from agrarian families in rural Maharashtra, it is in the cities that they prepare themselves for the sport in the mud pits of various talims as akhadas are known in Maharashtra. Take, for example, Kolhapur, which is home to wrestling and has a long history of kusti. The sport flourished during the reign of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, who in 1915 built India’s iconic sporting venue, Khasbag Maidan, in the middle of Kolhapur.

Sadashivrao Mandlik, a prominent wrestler who passed away in 2015, represented Kolhapur in the Lok Sabha between 1998 and 2014. He was also a three-time MLA from the Kagal assembly seat. In 2019, his son Sanjay Mandlik, a wrestler himself, entered the election fray from Kolhapur and won from the undivided Shiv Sena. The party, led by Eknath Shinde, has once again nominated him for the 2024 polls against Chhatrapati Shahu, a Congress nominee and descendant of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj.

With the huge popularity of wrestling in the state, it’s no surprise that the sport continues to offer politicians an additional lever to wield influence.