Nana Patole gives much-needed impetus to Congress in Maharashtra

He stunned everyone by expressing his chief ministerial ambitions. He targets to make Congress go solo in the future civic body polls

In the three decades of his political career, Nana Patole has earned several sobriquets—“firebrand leader”, “giant killer”, “rebel” and “pointsman”.

The 58-year-old Nana Bhau, as he is popularly known, has stood true to these words at every stage.

Patole, who in February 2021, took charge as the President of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), has been creating ripples in the state’s political circles.

He lashed out at the opposition BJP, but he did not spare Congress’s two ruling allies of Maha Vikas Aghadi—Shiv Sena and NCP. This made even Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP President Sharad Pawar express displeasure over Patole’s repeated call of Congress going solo in all future local body polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls.

Patole is a prominent leader of the Kunbi Maratha OBC community from the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. A post-graduate, he made a humble beginning as a Member of Bhandara Zilla Parishad in 1990.

A four-term MLA, he represents the Sakoli constituency in the Bhandara district. As an MLA, he made it a point to raise prominent issues and emerge as a “firebrand leader" who called a spade a spade.

Before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Patole switched over to the BJP to contest the Bhandara-Gondiya seat. He defeated Pawar’s Man Friday and NCP’s General Secretary Praful Patel and emerged as the “giant killer”.

However, in 2017, he was the first to raise a banner of revolt against Prime Minister Narendra Modi—the first to do so after BJP came to power in 2014 —and ultimately quit the BJP to join Congress after a series of meetings with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

In 2019, he unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur against BJP stalwart Nitin Gadkari.

In the 2019 Vidhan Saha polls, he contested from Sakoli and won the polls and when the MVA came in power, he became the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

But, in February, he decided to resign from the coveted post - and take over the reins of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.

Amid several stalwarts in the party like Sushilkumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan, Balasaheb Thorat and several other top leaders, Nana has carved a niche for himself and has managed to rejuvenate the Congress in the state.

On February 12, when he took over the new job, he attacked Modi describing him as “dhongi jeevi”, inviting the wrath of the state BJP leadership.

While he took potshots at fellow Vidarbha politician and Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, he also sent out a message to Shiv Sena and NCP, who had sidelined Congress in the Trimurti government by calling for a solo venture in the future elections.

However, Pawar, reacting to Patole’s statement that Shiv Sena-NCP is backstabbing Congress, said: "They are small people, why should I comment on them? If Sonia Gandhi had said something, then I would have commented on it."

Last month, Thackeray snubbed Patole for this announcement saying that every party wants to win as many seats as possible on its own, but this is not the time for such announcements.

Patole stunned the political circles when he admitted that he was an aspirant for the post of the chief minister. Besides, he accused the Shiv Sena-NCP of using government machinery to spy on him.

When he met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi, he limited himself to ensuing civic issues when cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Amravati, Aurangabad would go for polls—in what would be a sort of “mini-Assembly polls”.

"The Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections are far away, we will contest all the ensuing civic polls independently," Patole said after meeting the Congress high command.

Being a firebrand leader who would go all out against the BJP while keeping the Sena-NCP in check, he has emerged as the "pointsman" that Congress needed for a long time in Maharashtra.

This was proven when last fortnight, AICC in-charge of state H K Patil and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge rushed to Mumbai and pacified the Shiv Sena and NCP leadership.

"We were feeling very low, but now Nana has given us a boost that we needed," a Congress legislator said, adding that the party high command must side with him.