Maharashtra polls: Election debutant list full of politician kin, total 26

KOLHAPUR: Dynasts continue to dominate Maharashtra pollscape as most of the candidates making their debut in the 2024 assembly elections are either sons, daughters or close relatives of established political families. Not a single political party, not even the smaller ones, is an exception to this growing trend.

Political experts believe that the GenNext debutants are considered the most suitable candidates with “elective merit”.

By the practical definition of the term, it means these debutants have a support base and platform ready to make it to the assembly.

Some of the prominent debutants from the big parties are late R R Patil’s son Rohit and Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Yugendra Pawar for NCP (SCP), MNS supremo Raj Thackeray's son Amit and BJP RS member Ashok Chavan’s daughter Sreejaya.

Peasants and Workers Party, with its left-leaning ideology, is no exception. Late Ganpatrao Deshmukh’s grandson Babasaheb and the party’s state head Jayant Patil’s daughter-in-law Chitralekha are also in the fray.

“The topmost reason for politicians to push their children and family members in the poll fray is to keep the dominance of families in politics. The GenNext leaders get the advantage of the family legacy. These families either have clout within a caste or community or dominance in cooperative and education sectors, and industries. They are indirectly connected with thousands. Some politicians, who launched political parties, get their next generation into the poll arena to continue running the affairs,” said Prakash Pawar, professor, department of politics, Shivaji University, Kolhapur.

Some daughters of politicians are also following in on their fathers’ footsteps. For instance, Madhurimaraje Chhatrapati, a member of the Kolhapur royal family and daughter of former minister late Digvijay Khanvilkar, is making her poll debut from Kolhapur North. Khanvilkar was MLA for five terms from Karvir until 2004. Another such example is former MP Raosaheb Danve’s daughter Sanjana Jadhav, who is in the fray for the first time from Kannad on a Shiv Sena ticket.

Former deputy CM and state home minister R R Patil, fondly known as Aba, passed away in 2015. He had come up the ranks by first winning the ZP election in Tasgaon, Sangli. He was with NCP and a Sharad Pawar loyalist. His son, Rohit, was 16 when Aba passed away. He jumped into politics to fight alongside his mother, Sumantai, who won the ensuing bypoll.

“I never felt that my father was not around because people did not let me feel his absence. My family never forgot those who helped my father contest and win his first election in 1990. It might be the reason that I am in the fray to take that legacy forward,” said Rohit, who turned 25 a few months ago. He will be contesting from the seat his father once represented in the assembly.

The 2019 election saw the successful debut of Shiv Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray, NCP’s Rohit Pawar, Congress’s Ruturaj Patil, NCP’s Zeeshan Siddique, Congress’s Dheeraj Deshmukh and NCP’s Aditi Tatkare. Thackeray went on to become a cabinet minister and Tatkare a minister of state and then a cabinet minister in the first term itself.

“The phrase ‘catch them young’ is utilised by politicians well as they groom future leaders,” says Prakash Pawar.

Most of the top leaders in Maharashtra today belong to political families. Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar have family legacy. Fadnavis, who was Nagpur mayor and became an MLA in 1999, is the son of former MLA late Gangadhar Fadnavis. Ajit Pawar became an MP at the age of 32, winning from a seat represented by uncle Sharad Pawar.

NCP (SCP) state chief Jayant Patil is the son of former minister late Rajarambapu Patil. He became an MLA in 1990 when he was 28-year-old. Ex-CM Prithviraj Chavan of Congress was 40 when he entered Lok Sabha from the Karad constituency.

Though most of the GenNext making their poll debut this time are in their 20s or 30s, there is an exception. An arts graduate, Prabhavati Ghogare (57), will contest on a Congress ticket from Shirdi assembly seat against BJP’s Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. It is her first attempt in the assembly elections, though she won the gram panchayat polls from Loni Khurd in Ahliyanagar in 2021. Her late father-in-law, Chandrabhan Ghogare, was a prominent Congress politician who won the Shirdi seat in 1978. Chandrabhan was close to NCP (SCP)'s Sharad Pawar. “I am confident about defeating my opponents. It does not matter if a candidate is contesting for the first time. I have the confidence to slog on the poll pitch,” Prabhavati said.

(With inputs from Ranjan Dasgupta in Nashik and Mohammad Akhef in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar)