Newsmaker | Being Abdul Sattar: Importance of the only Muslim face in Shinde-BJP govt

After his daughters’ names emerged, a resilient Sattar is said to have visited Shinde’s residence late in the night to remind him of his promise. Sattar was among the first Sena MLAs to join the incumbent CM’s faction when he rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray. The MLA’s perseverance paid off, with Shinde and Fadnavis deciding that it made far more political sense to face criticism over Sattar’s inclusion than to rub him the wrong way.

Hailing from Sillod in Aurangabad district, Sattar cut his teeth in politics in the Congress, winning the gram panchayat elections in 1984. He became the Silllod Municipal Council president in 1994. Sattar first contested the Assembly elections in 1999 as an Independent from Sillod and lost. He later sidled up to senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan and was made a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council in 2001. Sattar’s political career suffered a setback when he lost the Sillod Assembly seat in 2004 by 301 votes. Three years later, he failed to retain his Legislative Council seat. He, however, made his first successful electoral foray in the Assembly by winning from Sillod in 2009.

Though Sattar went on to retain his Assembly seat in the 2014 elections, his relationship with the Congress had started deteriorating. Known to be temperamental, Sattar was caught on tape assaulting a party worker. In 2016, he resigned as the party’s Aurangabad district president, alleging that senior leaders had failed to campaign for the party outside their own turf. He also alleged that Chavan, then the state Congress chief, and Leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil were only concerned about their fiefs.

In the run-up to the 2019 Assembly polls, Sattar was said to have been in advanced talks with the BJP leadership to join the party. With his allegedly communal and corrupt image coming in the way of his joining the party, Sattar joined the Shiv Sena, which was a BJP ally at the time. He went on to win the 2019 Assembly elections, becoming only the second Muslim leader after Sabir Shaikh to win on a Sena ticket. He then went on to become a minister of state in the Uddhav Thackeray-led administration.