Maha: Congress’ Balasaheb Thorat says he is a ‘reluctant contestant’ as CM post looms ahead

Mumbai: Barely 72 hours before the state Assembly elections, 8-time Congress MLA from Sangamner (Ahmednagar) Vijay ‘Balasaheb’ B. Thorat has claimed that he is ‘a reluctant contestant’ this time as he was planning to ‘hang up his’ electoral boots but had to bow before the party’s wishes.

The statement by Thorat, 71, came at a campaign rally Sunday night in his constituency which was attended by Nationalist Congress Party (SP) Working President Supriya Sule and other leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), and more allies.

“Honestly speaking, I was not at all keen to contest the 2024 elections… I had informed even the top party leaders in New Delhi. But they insisted that I would have to be with them this time. So I agreed,” said the lawyer-turned-politician Thorat in his usual soft style, currently serving as the Congress Legislative Party Leader.

Wondering why they were so persuasive, he surmised it was probably because he could take along all legislators and the party also needed such a person to contest, as the audience recalled NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar’s broad hints last week that “Thorat was poised to bag a big responsibility”.

Otherwise, Thorat said that another candidate was all prepared to contest with the party ticket, and now he is facing elections for the 9th consecutive time from Sangamner — where he is pitted against ruling MahaYuti nominee Amol Khatal-Patil of the Shiv Sena.

The constituency was represented once by his father Bhausaheb Thorat (1978) for the Congress, then Balasaheb Thorat stood as an Independent (1985), and subsequently he romped home seven times more as a Congress candidate from Sangamner, with his daughter Jayashree Thorat now cutting her political teeth here.

In her address, Sule described him as a ‘civilized, social person and what an ideal elder brother should be” — which many suspected was a sharp jibe at her brash cousin, the Nationalist Congress Party President and Deputy CM Ajit A. Pawar.

“I have not just come to campaign for Thorat… I want the dreams you have seen should be fulfilled… The state needs good leadership… My desire is also the same for which I shall pray to Shirdi Saibaba and Lord Pandurang (Pandharpur in Solapur district),” Sule declared, indirectly alluding to her father’s statement in Ahmednagar last week.

Sule recalled how, whenever there was any problem in the government, “Sharad Pawar Saheb would first call Thorat and the issue would be resolved” — amid speculation that the Sangamner stalwart could be considered for the state top post this time.

Thorat took the opportunity to lambast the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Guardian Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who is contesting from the adjoining Shirdi Assembly constituency for the seventh consecutive time.

The Congress leader accused Vikhe-Patil of fomenting poll violence that has left many of his (Thorat’s) workers injured and demanded that the police must immediately identify the culprits and take strong action against them, “failing which we shall do the needful”.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: qnajmi@gmail.com)

–IANS