Poll victory opens avenues for Kadams

The spectacular electoral victory of state forest minister Patangrao Kadam’s son, Vishwajeet, as the Maharashtra Youth Congress president has not only resulted in his entry into ‘Team Rahul’ but has also improved the political stakes of his influential father.

On Tuesday, Vishwajeet polled 25,307 votes to defeat Satyajeet Tambe, nephew of revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, who polled 14,414 votes. Tambe will now be the new vice-president.

Vishwajeet said his agenda would be to bring the youth of the state into mainstream politics using Congress ideology. “I travelled extensively to connect with my Youth Congress colleagues,” he said. Vishwajeet, who was in Aurangabad during the counting of votes, returned home to Pune at night and received a rousing welcome from his supporters.

This victory is significant in view of all-India Congress committee (AICC) general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s project to revitalise the youth wing of the party. It will serve as the young Gandhi’s army and therefore, getting elected into this body was important for factions in the state Congress.
Tambe was supported by the faction of Union minister and former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Vishwajeet had the support of his father and other leaders of the anti-Vilasrao camp.

Elected consistently from his constituency in Sangli district for decades together, Patangrao Kadam has served as a cabinet minister in many Congress-led governments and handled various important portfolios.

The coveted post of chief minister has, however, been denied to him with others being preferred, such as Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan.

In recent years, Patangrao’s influence in the Congress party also seemed to be declining as he was given less important portfolio like forest.

His juniors — Balasaheb Thorat and Harshwardhan Patil — were given important portfolios of revenue and cooperatives respectively. Against this background, Vishwajeet’s success has revived his father’s career while providing him an opportunity to enter ‘Team Rahul’.

Although Patangrao competes with NCP seniors like state home minister RR Patil and state rural development minister Jayant Patil in this district, he has been successful in maintaining his local support base. In 2009, while the process of generational change in the Congress party was on, Patangrao had tried to get a candidature for Vishwajeet from Sangli constituency to make him an MP.

But Pratik Patil, grandson of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil, was preferred. Pratik went on to win the election and became minister of state in the Union cabinet.

For the Kadams, Pune is their second home, which also serves as the headquarters of the mammoth Bharati Vidyapeeth educational complex. Neither Patangrao nor Vishwajeet are active in city politics.

Vishwajeet is known in Pune as secretary of Bharati Vidyapeeth and for organising the annual Abhijeet Kadam memorial invitational football tournament for enthusiasts of the game.

Although Patangrao failed in his attempts to secure the leadership of the city Congress after the arrest and incarceration of Suresh Kalmadi, Vishwajeet’s elevation could now prove advantageous to both father and son.