Veteran NCP leader Govindrao Adik no more

Senior NCP leader and former minister Govindrao Adik passed away late on Saturday night following a lung infection. He was in the ICU of Bombay Hospital for the last few days and was put on the ventilator on Saturday.

Adik (76), the younger brother of former deputy chief minister Barrister Ramrao Adik, was once seen as a contender for the chief minister's post.

Elected to the state legislative assembly in 1972, Adik, who hailed from Srirampur in Ahmednagar district, was the minister for irrigation from 1979 to 1980. After a stint in the Rajya Sabha, he became a member of the legislative council and minister for agriculture from 2003 to 2005 in the Vilasrao Deshmukh-led Congress-NCP government.

A close associate of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Adik represented two constituencies – Srirampur and Vaijapur in Aurangabad – in the state legislative assembly.

Adik, who has a son and three daughters, was also the chief of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC). After being reportedly ignored for inclusion in the state cabinet in 2009 at the last minute, Adik switched sides to the NCP and became a Rajya Sabha MP and the party's national general secretary.

The veteran politician, who topped his LLB exams, worked for a while as the editor of a local weekly in Srirampur and also headed co-operative bodies, labour unions and sports federations. He had also formed Maharashtra Krishak Samaj, a farmers' body.