This sugar baron takes pride in the fact that he could easily be the oldest candidate fighting the Assembly elections this time. S R Patil's poll affidavit says he is 88 years old but Appasaheb,as he calls himself in his visiting card,or Saare Patil,as he is fondly called by all,takes you aside and whispers that he will be turning 89 in December. Born on December 21,1921,Saare Patil could easily have been the contemporary of Jawaharlal Nehru and later perhaps of Indira Gandhi; surely he could not have quite gelled with the age-group that Rajiv Gandhi wanted to usher into politics in the mid-80s as he would have been in his mid-60s then. A quaint old man,with a golf cap as a perpetual fixture on his head as the dentures are in his mouth,Saare is the Congress candidate who many believe has a realistic chance of beating Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana (SSS) candidate Ulhas Patil. A little hard of hearing,Saare turns to his aides once in a while to bail him out when he loses the thread of the conversation,but seems only too eager to point out that he is not an active Congressman but chosen to deliver a particular task. I dont know the Gandhi family though it is true that Rahul Gandhi came and visited my sugar factory earlier this year. It was Sharad Pawar who told him my sugar cooperative was worth visiting but that has nothing to do with my contesting these polls. At that time there was no such plan, says Patil,chairman of Shree Datta Shetkari Sahakari Sakhar Karakhana Ltd. He has had a blow-hot,blow-cold relation with the Congress when he first made it to the Assembly after defeating a Congress candidate in 1957. Then he stayed away from politics for over three decades before surfacing as a Congress candidate in 1999,only to be denied a ticket in 2004. Patils efforts to quell the SSS during the elections to the 28,000-member sugar cooperative where he beat Shettys nominees just after the latter became MP seems to have got Pawar thinking about the possibility of fielding him in the Assembly election. Talk to the Congressmen and they say anybody couldve suggested Patil but all names are eventually cleared by the high command. It was Pawar who Ive known for at least 30 years,who suggested that I contest these elections to break the hold of Raju Shettys SSS party in this area. I had recently beaten him in the sugar cooperative election,after he was elected MP. Both the NCP and Congress believe only I can break Shettys stranglehold over the region. I consented to contest as I believe people have had enough of the Sangathana brand of politics, he adds. Analysts whove for years been tracking the southern Maharashtra's sugar bowl politics say Pawar who rarely forgets any slights is betting on Shetty being beaten in his own den by a near nonagenarian as revenge for the many slights he has suffered at the hands of the self-styled leader of small and marginal farmers. Shetty admits as much. Saare Patil was denied a ticket by the Congress in 2004 citing his advanced age. Then he was 84. Sharad Pawar insisted that he was made to contest in my home constituency to teach me a lesson. But people know there is no use sending such an old and feeble man to the Vidhan Sabha, he says. Talk to the people in Shirol and its a mixed reaction. Some say Saare can deliver,that Shetty has joined hands with Shiv Sena,dumped his traditional vote base. Others chuckle,say its a stunt by Congress and NCP,that the old man can hardly walk. Saare himself bristles at such talk,saying he manages to cover 7 sabhas at different villages each day as part of plan to cover all 45 villages in the constituency by Sunday. I still take a train from Kolhapur to Mumbai and catch a flight to Delhi and do the return lap at least once a month. I can put in hard hours and have plans for Shirol for the next five years, he says with a glint in his eye. If Saare Patil alias Appasaheb actually pulls it off,his tenure in the next state Assembly will end in 2014. By which time he would be 93,pushing 94 another one for the record books.
