For the Vikhe-Patil family, whose interests go beyond politics, party doesn’t really matter. In the past seven decades, various members of the family have been part of all major parties with the objective of keeping their hold over their home—Ahmednagar, intact.
While the family flourished under the aegis of Balasaheb or Eknathrao Vikhe-Patil who was a union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, it was his father to took the first steps towards public life. Vithalrao set up Asia’s first ever sugar co-operative factory soon after Independence and brought prosperity to the rural population.
Balasaheb set up educational institutes with schools, medical and engineering colleges which increased the family’s influence over the region. As a Congress leader, he represented Ahmednagar in Lok Sabha seven times and left the Congress twice to lead different fronts.
It is the said that the Vikhe-Patil didn’t want to stay away from power for long.
In the 1990s, Balasaheb quit the Congress, once again, and joined the Shiv Sena to become a union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet. His son Radhakrishna too joined the Shiv Sena and was made a minister in the state cabinet while the Shiv Sena-BJP formed the government until 1999. Not hesitant to jump the ship when in distress, the father-son duo returned to the Congress when it won the 1999 elections in the state.
Radhakrishna stayed with the Congress until 2019 but switched over to the BJP in 2019 when it was apparent that the party was to get another tenure in power. His son, Sujay, a doctor by education, also joined the saffron party and won the Parliamentary elections that year.
The women of the family are also active in the local politics and social activities of the region. Radhakrishna’s wife Shalini has been a member of the Zilla Parishad in Ahmednagar.
Another young woman of the family, Nila who is Radhakrishna’s niece is actively involved in politics, but thousands of miles away from Ahmednagar. Half Swedish by birth, she joined the Green Party in Sweden and was appointed an advisor to the prime minister’s office for the first time in February 2016.
The family’s clout could not ensure a win for Sujay in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections which he lost to the NCP-SP’s Nilesh Lanke. The fourth generation of the family to be involved in public life, Sujay is now set to face Lanke’s wife in the upcoming assembly elections.
Comentarios