Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President Nana Patole has hit the headlines yet again. Generally, whenever he is in headlines, he is angry and is mad at someone. The difference this time was that he angered Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut so much, so that Raut went mad at Nana asking the Congress leadership to keep Patole away from seat sharing talks.
However, this is not the first time that they both have locked horns. In 2021, the year when Patole was made the MPCC Chief by the party leadership, he had hit headlines by stating that his party shall contest the next elections on its own and shall have a Congress worker as a Chief Minister. Raut, who is also the Executive Editor of his party’s mouthpiece Saamna, had written an editorial saying that Patole was overconfident when he made the statement about the power of the Congress in the state.
Patole is accused of being authoritarian and several leaders in the state Congress have raised complained against him with the party high command over past four years. Yet, he enjoys the confidence of the party high command who haven’t moved him away from the post. Probably the reason for that Patole’s grass root connect and that he had been a staunch Congress loyalist though he spent a few years in the BJP and hit national headlines by speaking against PM Narendra Modi when none dared to do so.
Nana, who belongs to agrarian Kunbi community from Suki village of Sakoli taluka of Bhandara district, had a humble start in the Zilla Parishad in 1990 as a Congress member. After the formation of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) his arch rival within the party, Praful Patel, went away making way for Nana’s ambition to become an MLA. After becoming MLA twice, in 1999 and 2004, Patole’s ambitions grew. However, he realised that he has little space in the state politics since the Congress and the NCP were in alliance and Patel was taking all the shots as far his home district was concerned. He then switched to BJP and got elected to the parliament in 2014. However, there too he realized that he stands little scope and he started criticising the top leadership of the party before quitting it in 2017.
Though he couldn’t keep his home turf in the bypolls, he won the assembly elections. He was made the Speaker of the assembly in 2019. He distasted the position and resigned from the post to join active politics in 2021, since when he is the MPCC president.
Under Patole’s leadership the party’s performance has been the best compared to past decade, and probably that is the reason why he appears to be the most favoured by the party high command. Even though differences with the Shiv Sena (UBT) over seat sharing are settled as of now, he is unlikely to dilute his stand and let anyone get bigger share of seats in Vidarbha, which is his best bet as of now.
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