Maharashtra Assembly polls: In Shirdi, a BJP rebel flown to Mumbai by special plane now challenges veteran Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil

In Mumbai, Pipada met Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule. “We must have held discussions for an hour…they urged me to withdraw,” he reveals. Pipada left Mumbai seeking time to mull over the decision but remained firm on his decision to contest.

“My fight is not personal. It is for the people of Shirdi Assembly seat. One family has been contesting, winning and doing nothing for the people of Shirdi seat and the entire district as well. The Vikhes have been selfish politicians. They have worked for their own betterment and do not care for the people who showed faith in them and ensured their repeated victory,” he says.

Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has won the seat seven times but only once on a BJP ticket.

Asked why the BJP is scared of a rebel who has never won an election before, Pipada says, “I don’t have the answer for this. Only the BJP can answer this. Maybe, they think I am a powerful candidate.”

The BJP has sufficient reason to worry. In the 2009 Assembly elections, when Vikhe-Patil was in the Congress, Pipada as a BJP candidate had given him a scare. “Though I lost by a margin of only 6,000 votes, I was leading in the first 13 rounds. Imagine, it was my first election while Vikhe-Patil had won at least three or four times,” he says.

In 2014, the BJP fielded Pipada again but he says he could not get the mandatory ‘AB forms’ on time. “The BJP did send the forms but the supporters of my rivals snatched it and ran away. I failed to file the nomination,” says Pipada.

In 2019, Pipada was left sulking as Vikhe-Patil joined the BJP. “The party asked me not to contest. I was upset but like a true soldier, I did not rebel,” he says.

“Be it water, roads or employment generation, the Shirdi seat is lagging on all fronts compared to the Sangamner seat. People struggle to get water to drink and water for their farms. The National Highway from Nagar to Shirdi is in bad shape. Industries are few and far, forcing educated youth to migrate to other districts and states. What have the Vikhes done in the last 35 years? They have done a lot for themselves, their families and their cronies,” says Pipada, comparing Shirdi to the neighbouring Sangamner Assembly seat from where senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat has been elected eight times.

Miffed with the BJP, Pipada says though he served the party diligently, he was being treated as “an outcast” after “an outsider” joined the party. “Original BJP leaders and workers are upset with what is happening in the party. In Shirdi, they are with me though they might not be campaigning openly,” he says.

The Pipadas, a prominent family from Rahata city in Ahilyanagar (formerly Ahmednagar) district, run an array of businesses. “But primarily I am a farmer and I am concerned about the plight of farmers. Like me, farmers are struggling to see their farms thriving. We are all waiting for water which is hard to come by in this region. This is because the politicians in this part have no place for people’s welfare in their heart,” he says.

Citing an instance, Pipada says that for 25 years, the contract workers of the famous Sai Baba temple in Shirdi were protesting, demanding permanent jobs. “I fought for them when the people’s representative did not even bother to take up their cause. I met the chief minister and deputy chief minister and got nearly 600 contract workers of Shirdi Sansthan permanency in their jobs,” he says.

Apart from Vikhe-Patil, Pipada will contest against Congress’s Pratibha Gogare, who was with the undivided Nationalist Congress Party earlier.

Pipada’s poll symbol is an autorickshaw and he is campaigning by travelling in the vehicle throughout the constituency. “Whether at corner meetings or in an autorickshaw, I highlight how the Vikhes have deprived the voters of Shirdi of any semblance of development. How getting water has remained a nightmare for years…The autorickshaw is identified with the common man for whose betterment I am contesting…I am sure it will move in top gear,” he says.

Madan Targe, a farmer from Rahata, is upset that “year after year, the same story is repeated here”. “There is no development, no water…I hope this time people will vote for a change. For me, Pipada is an ideal candidate as he knows what the people of this region desperately want. The Vikhes have no clue,” he says.