The Influential Clan of Sangamner

Saturday morning began with an angry campaign by Congress workers against BJP in Sangamner as BJP candidate Sujay Vikhe Patil’s party colleague made offensive remarks against Jayshree Thorat, daughter of senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat. Jayshree, an oncologist, was campaigning for her father who is leading his party in the seat sharing talks of the MVA. Jayshree, a member of the Congress, is the third generation of the Thorat family to be involved in public life.

The angry outburst against the BJP man who made objectionable comments against her, is also a reflection of the bitter rivalry between Thorat and Vikhe Patil who have been battling each other for supremacy over the region. Balasaheb Thorat, whose official name is Vijay, is an eight-time MLA from Sangamner and is the former head of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. Known to be warm and approachable to his party workers, Thorat comes with considerable experience in the cooperative movement in Maharashtra, having formed a milk cooperative and founded several cooperative educational institutes under the name Amrutwahini. Over his three decade long political career, he’s served as the minister for agriculture and revenue.

Thorat’s father Bhausaheb was a freedom fighter and staunch Congress leader from Ahmednagar who is known to have worked for the cause of the farmers and peasant community. It is said that when he was denied a ticket by the Congress in 1985, Bhausaheb introduced his son into electoral politics and while the second generation Thorat contested as an Independent candidate and won, he returned to the Congress fold and has been a staunch and loyal party worker since then. He’s never lost a single election since 1985 and the uninterrupted tenure has seen Thorat hold several positions of power, in the government.

Another Congress leader from the region, Sudhir Tambe, is Thorat’s brother-in-law and the two families have, for long, enjoyed considerable influence over the politics of Sangamner through their institutes and sugar mills. Tambe has been a Congress legislator in the upper house for the past 18 years but on the eve of the biennial Vidhan Parishad elections last year, withdrew from the fray to make way for his son Satyajit Tambe who contested as an Independent with the tacit support of the BJP and the Congress. Fadnavis had good naturedly cautioned Thorat that the BJP had set its sights on the young Tambe.