Who is Raghunathdada Patil and why does KCR want him?

However, hard-nosed politics seem to be driving KCR in his choice of inductees — it was rumoured that the two-time CM was keen on roping in former MP Raju Shetti to head the BRS in Maharashtra. Shetti heads Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, considered to be the most powerful farmers' outfit in Maharashtra with a significant following in western Maharashtra in particular. However, Shetti refused his offer as he did not want to merge his organisation into some political party. Now Raju Shetti is trying to unite smaller parties and organisations in Maharashtra.

While inducting Patil, KCR said that BRS has got a fighter leader in the form of Raghunath Patil, and his entry will help strengthen BRS in Maharashtra. KCR also expressed confidence that farmers will receive justice with Patil joining the BRS.

Soon after his induction, Patil announced that he would organise a farmers' rally on August 9.

“BRS has implemented many schemes in Telangana which have helped farmers. To make Maharashtra a farmer suicide-free state, we need to bring those schemes to Maharashtra. After the rally, I will tour various regions of the state, including Vidarbha and Marathwada to mobilise farmers. At present, the opposition is weak in Maharashtra, and farmers need a political party that they can trust with farmer-oriented policies. BRS will give them a new alternative," Patil said.

The rally would also be Patil’s comeback vehicle after having spent a few years in relative obscurity. Patil first stood for elections from the Hatkanangale constituency in Kolhapur in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls as a Shiv Sena candidate, and followed that up with fighting the 2014 general assembly elections as an Aam Aadmi Party candidate. In 2019, he contested as an independent from the same seat. However, changing parties didn’t seem to affect his poor performance in the polls; in fact, the number of votes he garnered decreased each time. In 2009, Raju Shetti contested from his own party, the Swabhimani Paksha (SWP) and won 481,025 votes compared to Patil’s 55,050. In 2014, Patil got only 9,015 votes. In 2019, he received 2,820 votes.

So why did Rao pick him despite his poor electoral performance? Two reasons.

For one, Patil was once a protege of the late Sharad Joshi, one of the tallest farmers’ leaders in the state. Two, the Telangana CM wants to make the people in the state, especially the farmers, familiar with his party.

Patil, also known as Raghunathdada, belongs to Sakhrale village in Walva tehsil of Sangli district. He was once a close aide of popular farmer leader, the late Sharad Joshi, who formed the Shetkari Sanghatana in 1979 to fight for the rights of farmers. Walva tehsil and Islampur assembly constituency are known to be bastions of NCP state president Jayant Patil (who is close to Sharad Pawar).

A science graduate from Kolhapur, Patil was a farmer before he joined Joshi, a leader whose agitations for farmers' rights shook the socio-political atmosphere in the state. When Joshi formed a political party, Swatantra Bharat Party, in 1994, he selected Patil as its first state president. After Joshi allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2004 and became a Rajya Sabha member, differences began to emerge in the farmers' organisation. Shetti broke off and registered an organisation called the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana in 2004. 

Later, Patil registered his own organisation as Shetkari Sanghatana in 2008. As Joshi had never registered the name ‘Shetkari Sanghatana’, Patil became the president of his registered organisation and this irked Joshi’s aides like Anil Ghanwat and former MLA Wamanrao Chatap from Vidarbha who remained with Sharad Joshi. Yet, both Shetti and Patil’s factions claimed they were the real successors of Sharad Joshi. Just a few months before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Patil joined AAP.

Apart from Shetti and Patil, western Maharashtra has yet another farmer leader who emerged from Joshi's outfit and now runs his own organisation — Sadabhau Khot, head of Rayat Kranti Sanghatana, and is politically closer to BJP. Khot was a close aide of Shetti, but after his induction in the BJP-Shiv Sena government of 2014-2019 as minister of state, Khot moved away from Shetti. While Shetti is a one-term MLA and two-term MP, Khot is politically influential too, and Patil is yet to make it big.

Most of the farmers in western Maharashtra vote for the NCP, Congress and the Shiv Sena. In 2019, for instance, the votes in this region went to Shiv Sena and NCP. Now, with the split in the Sena and more recently, the NCP, the support of farmers in these districts is likely to go to/stay with the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi.

This was one of the reasons that KCR sought Shetti, who he was certain would split farmers' votes. He invited Shetti to Hyderabad and requested him to be the face of BRS in Maharashtra. However, Shetti refused his offer. Rao eventually picked Shetti's arch-rival, Patil, though it is not clear yet if Patil will be the state president of the BRS.

Rao has been aiming to build a base in Marathwada and western Maharashtra, specifically among the farmers, which is expected to make a dent in the support base of the opposition Congress and NCP. Even a marginal amount of votes polled by BRS could be crucial in close contests. Rao is also expected to recruit more known names before the state goes to polls next year.

The Hatkanangale and Sangli (Patil’s home district) Lok Sabha seats are currently held by BJP and Shiv Sena legislators. There are rumours that Jayant Patil of the NCP may field his son Pratik from the Hatkanangale constituency. So Raghunath Patil has his task cut out for him: He will need to clear the space for BRS in these two constituencies. It remains to be seen what he can do: in assembly elections, even 1,000 - 2,000 votes may impact the outcome.

Not everyone is convinced, however, of BRS’ scheme for expansion in Maharashtra. Veteran journalist Vasant Bhosale felt that the BRS will not benefit from Patil’s entry into their camp, as Patil has already lost his organisational base to Raju Shetti. “When Shetkari Sanghatana was united, Raghunath Patil was one of the prominent faces as an educated farmer who spoke to the point and in an aggressive manner. After the split in the organisation and mainly after Shetti formed his own Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana in 2004, Patil lost his clout. Since then, Shetti has been the undisputed leader of farmers in the area. That is why Patil has never succeeded against Shetti. Patil joined BRS as he had no other opportunity in politics. The party also is struggling to attract known names,” Bhosale said.