Now you see me… now you don’t: The case of an NCP MLA

Wai MLA Makrand Jadhav-Patil has swung from Ajit Pawar to Sharad Pawar to Ajit Pawar, all in the course of one week

This swing between Pawar Junior and Senior might be puzzling for some, but three-time MLA Jadhav-Patil, 56, is matter-of-fact. (Express File)

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A LOT CAN happen in a week – or not. It depends on the perspective of NCP MLA Makrand Jadhav-Patil.

On July 2, Jadhav-Patil was at Ajit Pawar’s residence where a group of rebellious NCP MLAs decided to march to the BJP’s side and take oath as ministers. He says he was offered a berth too, but “refused”. On July 3, Jadhav-Patil was by Sharad Pawar’s side when he visited the memorial of his late mentor Yashwantrao Chavan to announce his fightback against his nephew. By July 10, Jadhav-Patil had avowed himself an Ajit Pawar man again.

This swing between Pawar Junior and Senior might be puzzling for some, but three-time MLA Jadhav-Patil, 56, is matter-of-fact.

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“On July 1, I was in Mumbai to meet Ajit Pawar in connection with two debt-ridden sugar factories in my constituency. Next day, I was called to his residence in Mumbai. He told me I would be taking oath as a minister along with others in the Shinde-Fadnavis government… I told him it will not be appropriate to do so without consulting my voters,” he told The Indian Express, adding that he neither signed an affidavit that Ajit was collecting of the NCP MLAs with him nor attended the ceremony where nine NCP MLAs were sworn in as ministers.

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“Confused”, he decided to immediately leave Mumbai and return to his native Wai, Jadhav-Patil says.

The next day, Sharad Pawar arrived in Karad, which like Wai is in Satara district, to launch his fightback. Among the supporters present to hail the veteran was Jadhav-Patil. Asked about this, the MLA shrugged. “He is our national president, and he was in our area. It did not make sense to stay away.”

At the memorial event, Jadhav-Patil was effusive in his praise for Pawar Senior. “Since the formation of the NCP, my father Laxmanrao Jadhav-Patil has been with Sharad Pawar, who gave immense love and strength to our family. He has been a father figure to me.”

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He added that Satara district’s politics “has a certain ideology, principle and values. We will never drift away from that ideology. And therefore, we are with Sharad Pawar”.

According to Jadhav-Patil, what caused his change of heart was a meeting held by him in Wai, where his supporters “pressured” him to join other NCP MLAs in the ministry “for the sake of development of Wai”. “People said that it would be difficult to revive the two sugar factories as well, otherwise….”

So before the week of musical chairs in Maharashtra was over, Jadhav-Patil was at Ajit’s side again. He says he carried along a list of grievances from his constituency, including demand for revival of the two ailing sugar factories and development of tourist spots like Mahabaleshwar and Khandala.

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The Deputy CM, Jadhav-Patil says, “promised all possible help”.

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On Sunday, the NCP MLA said, his mind was finally made up. “It was a difficult decision. I am close to both Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, it is not right to side with either. But my voters and my constituency are at the top of my agenda. During the five year of BJP rule from 2014-19, my constituency did not get any support.”

No, he carried no regrets about missing out on a ministerial berth, Jadhav-Patil stressed. “I had not set any conditions for joining the government. My supporters might have been promised that I would be made a minister,” he said.

NCP sources said the door was not closed on this one, and that Jadhav-Patil may well be accommodated in the next round of Cabinet expansion.

Sanjay Tatkare, the spokesperson of the Ajit-led NCP faction, said: “Jadhav-Patil has a good opportunity to become a minister as there are only two MLAs from Satara in our team.”

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Mahesh Tapase, the spokesperson for the Sharad Pawar camp, said that for their leader, “ideology was closest to heart”. “Those who want to go for other considerations can do so, but we will not dump our ideology. We are firmly behind our leader Sharad Pawar.”

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Jadhav-Patil has links with the NCP going back to his father Laxmanrao Jadhav-Patil, a two-time Satara MP who played a major role in growth of the NCP in the district. In its year of formation in 1999, the NCP won most of its seats in Satara.

Makrand Jadhav-Patil lost his first Assembly election in 2004, but since then has never lost, withstanding the Narenda Modi wave of 2014.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More