Rajesh Patil wins Gokul chairman's post 16-13 with help of nominated directors

Rajesh Patil, a former Nationalist Congress Party MLA, was elected chairman of the Gokul Milk Union in Kolhapur on November 10. He won by 16 votes to 13 against Shashikant Patil-Chuyekar, the candidate of Satej Patil's camp. The result ends several days of churn in the district's cooperative politics and hands control of the union to the Mahayuti.

Patil stood for the Mahayuti's Chhatrapati Shahu Shetkari Vikas Aghadi. Chuyekar was the candidate of Satej Patil's Rajarshi Shahu Samvichari Aghadi. The filings differ on the full name of that front: one calls it the Rajarshi Shahu Shetkari Samvichari Aghadi and the other the Rajarshi Shahu Kisan Samvichari Aghadi. Hasan Mushrif announced Patil's election. The outcome is a major setback for Satej Patil.

The decisive votes came from the four directors nominated by the government. Along with Gokul's 25 elected directors, they were allowed to vote, and all four backed the Mahayuti. Among the elected directors the contest was close to level: 13 belonged to the Samvichari Aghadi and 12 to the Mahayuti. The Samvichari Aghadi objected at the meeting to the nominated directors voting at all.

The election was conducted under returning officer Mosmi Chaugule, also spelt Mausami Chougule in another filing. Directors of both fronts began arriving at Gokul from 10 am. Patil and Chuyekar filed their nominations. At about 12.30 pm the Mahayuti leaders met at a stage set up in the Shirgaon area of Gokul. Minister Chandrakant Patil, Hasan Mushrif and former MP Sanjay Mandlik were among those present. Ahead of the vote, the name of the new chairman had been expected at around 2 pm.

Voting began at 1.15 pm. Mahayuti directors voted first, then those of the Samvichari Aghadi, and the government-nominated directors voted last. The result was declared at 1.50 pm.

The path to the vote was long. The union went to the polls on October 18. When the results came on October 19, the Samvichari Aghadi had won 13 of the 25 seats and the Mahayuti 12. The chairman's election was first put off for want of a quorum, and the hurdle was cleared about 15 days later. The Mahayuti decided to appoint five government-nominated directors and give four of them the right to vote. That right was a major point of dispute from the start. Satej Patil challenged the decision in court. The Aurangabad bench ordered that the election be held on November 10, but said the whole process would be subject to the court's final verdict in the pending case.

Rajesh Narsingrao Patil belongs to the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP and has represented the Chandgad Assembly constituency. He became MLA from Chandgad in 2019. His father, Narsing Gurunath Patil, was also an MLA from the same area, so politics runs in the family. He is a trusted associate of Hasan Mushrif and the late Ajit Pawar, and is the brother-in-law of former MP Sanjay Mandlik. In the 2024 Assembly election he lost to Shivaji Patil, a rebel BJP candidate. The defeat was seen as a major setback for the NCP, and Ajit Pawar is said to have regretted it deeply.

Ajit Pawar described Patil as his "right hand". In a video from an event in Chandgad, now circulating on social media, he said: "Where do I tie the turban, our right hand Rajesh Patil has lost." He also said: "We have won a stronghold in Maharashtra, but our lion is gone." He appealed to the people of Chandgad to elect Patil again. Patil himself had vowed not to tie a turban until Ajit Pawar became chief minister. After Patil's defeat in 2024, it was said that Ajit Pawar too did not wear a turban during his Kolhapur visit.

The chairmanship also bears on an old quarrel. In the previous Gokul election, Patil's wife and Sanjay Mandlik's son Virendra Mandlik both lost. The Mandlik camp was angered and criticised Hasan Mushrif. With the chair now going to Patil from the Mushrif camp itself, the old dispute has taken a new turn, and some see the differences as papered over.