3 min readPuneJun 10, 2026 08:46 PM IST
First published on: Jun 10, 2026 at 06:25 PM IST
Even as the State Legislative Council polling day is nearing, Shiv Sena MLA Hemant Patil has decided to keep himself away from the ”murky elections” while describing the politics in Maharashtra as farce.
“I do not want to blacken my hands in the brokerage of coal,” Patil said while speaking to reporters in Nanded on Wednesday.
Patil has not been campaigning for Mahayuti candidates in Nanded. ”I have deliberately decided that I will not participate in this kind of electioneering,” he said. ”This election is not about the plight of Marathi Manoos, it is meant only for wealthy candidates,” he added.
Patil said in the State Legislative Council elections, money matters more than anything else. ”No one is going to vote in this election without taking money. It makes no difference to anyone no matter how much we try to tell them,” he said.
The Sena MLA was unsparing on the kind of politics being played in Maharashtra. ”The politics in Maharashtra has recently turned into a farce,” he said.
”A massive marketplace has opened up everywhere…It is extremely unfortunate for Maharashtra’s political culture,” he said.
Patil said leaders have become untrustworthy in today’s political terrain. “Today, the biggest question is who to sit with and who to trust. No one can say for sure who the person sitting with us today will be with tomorrow. People we sit with today are seen in the opposition camp tomorrow. There is no certainty about who will form an alliance with whom in Maharashtra. It is because of this uncertainty that I am staying away from this election,” he said.
In the same breath, he however extended full support to his leader, Eknath Shinde, Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister.
”Eknath Shinde is our supreme leader. The stance he takes is always in the interest of the state and the nation. We, all Shiv Sainiks, stand firmly with him,” he said.”
The Sena MLA emphasised that the Legislative Council elections are witnessing massive financial transactions.
”They are filing nominations and then suddenly withdrawing. This shows large financial transactions are taking place. All of Nanded is well aware of what this is,” he said.
The polling for the 10 councils are scheduled on June 18. Six candidates belonging to Mahayuti have been elected unopposed.
Shiv Sena MP Hemant Patil (File photo). 
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