‘Vilaskaka’ Patil-Undalkar remained a staunch Congress loyalist throughout his life

Vilasrao Patil-Undalkar (84) passed away at a hospital in Satara following a brief illness.

Vilasrao Patil-Undalkar. A seven-time Congress MLA from Karad South constituency, Vilaskaka, as he was fondly addressed, was among the few leaders in Maharashtra Congress who had a mass following. His bastion was Karad South, which he assiduously nurtured and nourished.

Former state cooperatives minister Vilasrao Patil-Undalkar (84), who passed away early on Monday, was a die-hard Congress loyalist who never left the party even during its worst phase. He passed away at a hospital in Satara following a brief illness.

“He was not feeling well for last 15 days and was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Satara. He died early this morning,” said a family source. The funeral took place in Undale village at 3 pm on Monday, where a sea of party workers and leaders, cutting across the political spectrum, were present. Undalkar is survived by his son and a daughter.

A seven-time Congress MLA from Karad South constituency, Vilaskaka, as he was fondly addressed, was among the few leaders in Maharashtra Congress who had a mass following. His bastion was Karad South, which he assiduously nurtured and nourished.

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When the Congress denied him the nomination from Karad South constituency in the 2014 Assembly elections, to make way for then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, Undalkar contested as an independent candidate and lost to Chavan by a narrow margin. Political analysts say Undalkar would have won the election had the BJP not fielded Atul Bhosale, which resulted in division of votes.

Even while he was contesting as a rebel, the Congress refused to suspend him or sack him. The Congress took no action against Undalkar in view of his long innings with the party, his loyalty and popularity among the masses. Congress leaders said they had made all possible effort to make him withdraw from the electoral fray. “Even Chavan tried to convince him, but failed to do so.

Undalkar argued that since he had worked for the people of Karad for years, why should he opt out,” said a leader.

Though he won from the South Karad Assembly seat so many times, a ministerial berth came his way only in his fifth term. Undalkar first became the state law and justice minister, and then held the departments of dairy development and animal husbandry. “It was Vilasrao Deshmukh who had given Kaka his ministerial berth. Deshmukh had also given him the key charge of cooperatives ministry,” said political analyst Ravikiran Deshmukh.

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Admired for his clean image in public life, Undalkar was outspoken and straightforward in his approach. which at times did not go down well with senior leaders. “In the 2004 elections, when the Congress won fewer seats than the NCP and was in the process of selecting its legislature party leader, Undalkar had thrown his weight behind Sushilkumar Shinde. When party seniors asked him the reason, Undalkar contended that the party had won under Shinde and since he was a Dalit leader as well, he should be elected as the legislature party leader,” said Ravikiran Deshmukh.

This cost Undalkar a ministerial berth in the cabinet headed by Vilasrao Deshmukh. But Undalkar did not seem to mind and continued to serve the party in any way he could.

Paying tribute, state Congress president Balasaheb Thorat said, “In the death of Vilaskaka, the party has lost a staunch loyalist and an experienced party leader who enjoyed a mass following.”

Former chief minister Ashok Chavan said, “In the passing away of Vilaskaka, the Congress has lost a true torchbearer and a leader who remained loyal to the party throughout his life. Even in the difficult times, he never left the Congress and followed its ideology strictly. For 35 years, he continued being elected as an MLA, which showed his wide acceptance among the masses.”

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Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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