One seat, two families: How an old feud made Sujay Vikhe Patil switch to BJP

The seeds of political rivalry between the Vikhe Patil and Pawar clans started with Sujay's grandfather Eknathrao, a towering leader and Union Minister who was known as Balasaheb in political circles.

Eknathrao controlled Maharashtra's oldest sugar cooperative factory in Ahmednagar's Loni region, started by his father Vitthalrao, and was close to the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shankarrao Chavan.

In a state where the wheels of power are turned by leaders' hold over sugar cooperatives, Chavan had reportedly tried to check the influence of Vasantdada Patil, another senior Congress leader in the state and Pawar, who was a part of Congress then. While Pawar and Eknathrao sparred in public, they reportedly continued to cultivate contacts with each others' rivals in the background, particularly in Ahmednagar.

The seat has been subject to not just political but also legal battles. For instance, in 1991, contesting as rebel Congress candidate, Eknathrao contested on the seat and lost, but went on to legally challenge Pawar— who was then the Chief Minister—accusing him of resorting to corrupt electoral practices to make the Congress candidate win. The battle went to the Supreme Court, where Pawar was cleared of all charges.

The rivalry spilled over to the next generations as well. In 2011, with the Congress government in power in the state, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Corporation (MERC), falling under the control of then power minister Ajit Pawar— Sharad Pawar's nephew—took away electricity distribution rights from Mula Pravara Society, an electricity cooperative in Ahmednagar owned by the Vikhe Patil family. The reason given was that it owes the state Rs 2,200 crore, but according to reports, the move was perceived as a continuance of the old family rivalry.

That was 2011, and, eight years later, the feud still seems to be simmering. According to reports, Sujay was adamant about contesting from Ahmednagar, while the NCP wanted to field its own candidate in the seat. This was one of the reasons, according to reports, that the seat-sharing arrangement between Congress-NCP had been delayed. The senior Vikhe Patil, Radhakrishna, had made an appeal to Pawar to consider Sujay as his grandson, but Ajit had announced that "there was no question of the NCP relinquishing the Ahmednagar seat to the Congress".

A Congress bastion for long, BJP's Dilip Kumar Gandhi won from Ahmednagar constituency in 2009, getting re-elected in 2014. Sections within the BJP had reportedly opposed Sujay's entry into the party, arguing that if he is to be given a ticket, he should contribute to the party's growth.