In a major upset, a panel led by Congress MLC Mahadevrao Mahadik and his nephew Dhananjay regained control over the Bhima cooperative sugar factory in Mohol taluka in Solapur district after 25 years
In a major upset, a panel led by Congress MLC Mahadevrao Mahadik and his nephew Dhananjay regained control over the Bhima cooperative sugar factory in Mohol taluka in Solapur district after 25 years on Monday.
Mahadik’s Bhima Bachao panel defeated Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Bhima Vikas panel and Maharashtra Road Transport Corporation’s chairman, Sudhakar Paricharak, who was also contesting the polls.
The Mahadik-led panel was supported by Pandharpur’s independent MLA, Bharat Bhalke, and other local leaders like Kalyanrao Kale and advocate Nandkumar Pawar.
The factory of 17,000 members spread in 56 villages of Solapur district was founded by Dhananjay’s late father Bhimrao in 1981. However, Paricharak was controlling the factory since 1986.
Paricharak’s panel was supported by water supply and sanitation minister and NCP leader, Laxmanrao Dhoble, and his party leaders.
The Mahadik panel won 16 of 17 directors’ post with a margin of 2,000 to 2,600 votes. Paricharak is the only candidate of his panel to win unopposed from the institution category.
Dhananjay, who also won the polls, will take over the factory as chairman next week. “We will start cogeneration and distillery unit for ensuring better rates to farmers,” he said. The victory is considered a boost for Mahadik family that has been facing setbacks in Kolhapur for the past two years after reigning over the district politics for more than 20 years.
The factory’s victory is the first electoral success for Dhananjay who had suffered two major setbacks — losing the 2004 Lok Sabha polls as a Shiv Sena candidate to Sadashivrao Mandlik and facing defeat against minister of state for home, Satej Patil, in the assembly polls in 2009.
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