Meet Satej Patil, man behind Congress victory in Kolhapur

MUMBAI: Soon after the Kolhapur by-poll results were announced on Saturday, declaring a win for Congress candidate Jayshri Jadhav over Bharatiya Janata Party’s Satyajit (Nana) Kadam, Congress party workers began to celebrate with ‘gulal’ and distributed sweets.

The Congress bagged the seat with the help of Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — its allies in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in power — as the combined strength of the parties proved beneficial in defeating opposition party BJP.

However, it’s one man to whom the victory must be attributed: Satej Patil (50) was responsible for everything from selecting the candidate to handling the campaign. The 50-year-old Congress leader ensured that local NCP leader and rural development minister Hasan Mushrif and Sena leader Rajesh Kshirsagar (who was the MLA from the constituency before Congress won it in 2019) were on board. The seat is a Sena stronghold. The party had won five of seven elections till 2019.

Popularly known as Bunty, Patil is the son of education baron and former Bihar governor DY Patil. Involved in the student politics of the Shivaji (Kolhapur) University, Patil launched his co-operative sugar factory at the age of 27 in 2000. He emerged as a giant killer by defeating NCP leader Digvijay Khanvilkar from the erstwhile Karveer constituency in 2004, which he fought as an independent candidate with support from Sena and BJP.

He later switched to the Congress and became the minister of state for home in the erstwhile CongressNCP government. He was seen as being close to the then CM Prithviraj Chavan.