Why Chandrakant Patil is facing the heat in Maharashtra BJP
When he was inducted into the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government in 2014, Chandrakant Patil was considered a man for all seasons because of his ability to handle a number of issues besides his clean image. Three and a half years later, the revenue minister has become the epitome of goof-ups and misplaced priorities.
Most recently, Patil found himself at the centre of controversy when he recited a Kannada song praising Karnataka, where he attended the inauguration of a Durga temple in Belgaum district. Patil opened his speech with "Huttidare Kannada Nadalli Huttabeku (roughly translated as "One should be born in Karnataka if one is born at all")".
As expected, the Opposition is demanding Patil’s head for “insulting Maharashtra in Karnataka”.
The controversy assumes political relevance owing to Maharashtra's long-pending border dispute with Karnataka. Belgaum is the centrepoint of the chorus for the demand for the merger of Karnataka’s Marathi-speaking border areas with Maharashtra. Patil has effectively given the Opposition an opportunity to target the state government for its “double standards” over the decades-old issue.
“We were aware of the BJP’s affection for Gujarat. Now, it has developed love for Karnataka. Chandrakant Patil has stabbed the people of Maharashtra in the back,” said Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar. He even asked for the minister's resignation in a tweet.
कर्नाटक राज्यात मराठी भाषिक लोकांना वाईट वागणूक मिळते. महाराष्ट्राचे कॅबिनेट मंत्री @ChDadaPatil यांनी बेळगाव जिल्ह्यातील एका कार्यक्रमात कन्नडमध्ये गीत गाणे अयोग्य आहे. त्यांच्या अशा वागण्याचा धिक्कार. त्यांनी तत्काळ राजीनामा द्यावा. #हल्लाबोल @NCPspeaks pic.twitter.com/btnspOA8pU
— Ajit Pawar (@AjitPawarSpeaks) January 21, 2018
Patil has become a habitual offender when it comes to breaking Marathi hearts. Only two weeks ago, he had raised questions over the competence of BJP workers in the state. Speaking at a conclave of teachers in Beed, Patil had said it had become difficult to find leaders of character for various important posts in the party. “We won’t find such people even if we look for them with binoculars,” he had said, in an apparent dig at "incompetent" BJP workers.
He had also found himself in a spot in October 2017 when he provided wrong information about the ownership of two flats in the possession of state Congress president Ashok Chavan’s daughters – Shrijaya and Sujaya.
While he has apologised to BJP workers over his remarks in Beed, Patil clarified that he spoke in Kannada recently as the native audience could grasp only that language.
The goof-ups are likely to hamper his political career, considered bright till a couple of months ago. A smear campaign has already been conducted within the BJP to curtail Patil’s phenomenal political growth. He was an office-bearer at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Kolhapur office till 2010, when the BJP inducted him full time and made him contest the legislative council election from the graduates’ constituency.
Patil secured a comfortable victory but kept a low profile, following his Sangh ideals.
His stature in the party started growing since Amit Shah became BJP's national president. Both of them share very good relations since Shah’s wife comes from Patil’s hometown Kolhapur. Patil has had close ties with Shah’s in-laws since his days in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in late '80s. He became number two in the Fadnavis Cabinet following the ouster of then revenue minister Eknath Khadse, who was the party's most senior face.
On at least three occasions, when there were speculations over Fadnavis being replaced as the CM, Patil emerged as a frontrunner for the coveted post. First, it was the outcry of the Maratha community demanding reservation in education and government jobs. Later, the unprecedented agitation by farmers demanding a better price for their produce and, recently, the protests by Dalits following clashes at Bhima Koregaon on January 1 made Patil feel that he stood a chance to lead Maharashtra in the event Fadnavis is asked to step down for “mishandling” the crisis.
It created the impression that Patil, a Maratha, could succeed Fadnavis, a Brahmin.
The situation has rapidly changed and an impulsive Patil alone is responsible for that. He has become the target of detractors within the BJP. A source in the party claims that a whispering campaign has been engineered over Patil’s caste. Some have started circulating a message that says Patil is a Jain not a Maratha. It points out that there are many Jains in western Maharashtra, especially in Kolhapur and Sangli, who carry Marathi surnames like Patil.
That Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil, the founder of Rayat Shikshan Sanstha, a major education trust in Sangli, was a Jain. The message asks what Chandrakant Patil has done for the welfare of Maratha students as the head of a committee constituted to deal with issues pertaining to the community, such as reservation and scholarships.
If the message is an indication, it is the beginning of the decline of Patil’s influence.