Will ‘imported’ sugar barons sweeten BJP’s Maharashtra tally?

Nothing sweetens a politician’s chances in Maharashtra like sugar. Former CMs Vasantdada Patil, S B Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan were all sugar barons. So were the bulk of cabinet ministers.

For a long time, the state’s cooperative sugar sector, which dominates the rural economy in western Maharashtra and parts of Marathwada, leaned towards Congress and NCP. The late Gopinath Munde was one of the few BJP leaders to set up sugar factories in Marathwada, until the party went on a drive to mop up sugar barons from rival camps in 2019.

Among the top ‘imports’ were former Congress leaders Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Harshavardhan Patil, as well as the family of Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, who is now on his way back to NCP (Sharad Pawar). Vikhe Patil’s son Sujay is a BJP MP while Mohite Patil’s son Ranjitsinh is a BJP MLC. Later entrants include Hasan Mushrif, who joined Ajit Pawar’s faction of NCP, and Ashok Chavan, who left Congress for BJP.

Centre also set up a Union Cooperation ministry under Amit Shah in 2021 although cooperatives are a state subject. But will these imports help BJP in Lok Sabha polls?

Steady gains in state’s west
Consider the numbers. The cooperative network has an influence on at least 16 of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. Western Maharashtra’s sugar bowl has 10 of these. In 2009, Congress-NCP won six seats, but in the Modi wave of 2014, BJP won three and its alliance partner Shiv Sena won two, while NCP took four. By 2019, BJP had four seats, Shiv Sena three and NCP was down to three.

However, observers say this sugar high has its limits. “There is now a disconnect between sugar barons who have gained financially and politically, and farmers who are the voters,” says Ajit Navale from Kisan Sabha.
For the farmer-voter, the sugar export ban that caused domestic prices to slide, and low prices for the local soya bean crop are more impor tant, says farmer leader Raju Shetti, who rose politically by taking on sugar barons. He is contesting as an Independent candidate from Hat kanangale in the sugar belt.

Shetti says BJP might also have to worry about the fallout from splitting NCP and Shiv Sena, and the Maratha quota agitation: “The sympathy wave towards Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray will also be a factor in this election, especially in western Maharashtra.”

Growing disconnect with farmers
Maharashtra is India’s second biggest sugar producer after UP, and many of its cooperative sugar factories were set up in the 1960s. These spawned a larger web of cooperative banks, dairies and educational institutions, giving their masters enormous political clout.

However, the influence of sugar barons over farmers waned as the feeling that they were self-serving and had run cooperative institutions to the ground grew. Several cooperative sugar factories were auctioned at throwaway prices, often to be run by the same politicians. Currently, there are more private sugar mills (105) than cooperatives (95) in the state.

Political chameleons all
For all their political and financial clout, these barons have been ideologically fluid, siding with the winning side. Both Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Harshavardhan Patil left Congress and joined Shiv Sena-BJP govt in 1995. They later returned to Congress but are with BJP now.

Originally with NCP, Vijaysinh Mohite Patil’s family aligned with BJP in 2019 and Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil became a party MLC. The family was expecting a BJP ticket for Vijaysinh’s nephew Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil, but after BJP nominated the family’s local rival and sitting MP Ranjeetsinh Nimbalkar from Madha, Dhairyasheel joined NCP (Sharad Pawar) and got the party’s Madha ticket.
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