From house help to neta's Man Friday: Dhananjay Munde and Valmik Karad's 25-year bond under scrutiny

CHHATRAPATI SAMBHAJINAGAR: Ever since former Parli Municipal Council chief Valmik Karad's role in the Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh's murder emerged, there have been calls from all quarters for NCP MLA Dhananjay Munde, locally called DM, to resign from the cabinet on moral grounds.

His rivals substantiated their demand for DM's resignation by citing environment minister Pankaja Munde's statement during the last Dasara rally, where she stated, "The person without whom even a leaf cannot move for Dhananjay Munde is Valmik Karad."

Moreover, Munde, within days of Karad's name cropping up in the case, did not shy away from confiding in the media that Karad was indeed his close aide, and sought a fair probe into the case.

Karad's close affiliation with Dhananjay began over 25 years ago. After Karad completed his SSC, he shifted to Parli for his junior college. In the 1990s, late BJP politician Gopinath Munde's friend Phulchand Karad introduced Valmik Karad to the Munde family. Valmik Karad started working as a house help for the Mundes.

He quickly climbed the ladder in the Munde household and started handling political works. People in Parli recalled that during Vaidyanath college trust's election in the late 1990s, things took a violent turn, and Karad reportedly sustained an injury.

Karad also began getting govt contracts for civil and other works. In 2000, he developed close ties with Dhananjay. In 2001, during the Parli Municipal Council elections, Karad was elected council president. In 2009, when Dhananjay opposed Gopinath Munde for sidelining him, Karad sided with the nephew. Since then, Karad has been in Dhananjay's inner circle, a local politician said.

Karad is well known within Beed as Munde's "right-hand" man, who handled his election campaigns, social, political, and development works. A local MLA had told TOI that Karad has such clout that even they had to route their work or meeting with Munde through him. Many held a grudge against Munde and see the sarpanch murder case as an opportunity to clear a political roadblock to their prominence in the district.