Suresh Kalmadi’s political legacy: Congress powerbroker, sports czar, undone by CWG scandal
The former Union Minister and 3-time Pune MP’s initial rise in the Congress was due to his rapport with Sharad Pawar. Subsequently, he drew his clout from his proximity to the Gandhis, but was frozen out after his arrest in 2011.
Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Suresh Kalmadi (Photo/PTI) A former Indian Air Force pilot who made his mark in Pune politics and rose through the Congress ranks after coming to Sanjay Gandhi’s notice, Suresh Kalmadi was frozen out by the party after he was arrested in 2011 in connection with the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The former Union Minister and seven-term MP, including three as the Lok Sabha MP from Pune, died in a city hospital in the early hours of Tuesday at the age of 81. Kalmadi — who is survived by his wife, a son, daughter-in-law, two daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren — was cremated at 4 pm in the presence of a large number of supporters and Congress workers.
Kalmadi was arrested on April 24, 2011, in a corruption case linked to the Games in which the CBI accused him of irregularities in awarding a contract to a Swiss firm, allegedly causing a loss of more than “Rs 90 crore to the exchequer”. The Delhi High Court granted him bail in this case nine months later. The CBI’s closure report, in which it said no incriminating evidence had been found, was filed in January 2014 and was accepted by a Delhi court in February 2016. In 2025, Kalmadi received another reprieve after a Delhi court accepted the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) closure report on money laundering allegations against him linked to the scam. Following that, there were calls from sections of the local Congress to rehabilitate Kalmadi.
Though the veteran leader was once close to the Gandhis, he was suspended in 2011 following his arrest. After his release from prison, he kept away from politics and the party’s national leadership also ended its ties with him. While state Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal and other state unit leaders issued condolence messages on Tuesday, the party’s top national leaders remained silent.
Friend of Pawar, Gandhis
Kalmadi’s political career took off in 1977, when he was appointed the Pune Youth Congress president. However, that was because of Sharad Pawar, a rising star in the Congress who would become the Maharashtra Chief Minister the following year.
“I was the Maharashtra Congress Youth president when I made Kalmadi the Pune Youth Congress president because of his zest to work for the party. He came across as someone highly knowledgeable and well-informed,” said senior Congress leader Ulhas Pawar.
In 1978, Kalmadi contested his first election, from the Shivajinagar Assembly seat, but lost. When Sharad Pawar rebelled against the Congress-led state administration of Vasantdada Patil and broke away with 40 MLAs to form the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) government, Kalmadi followed him to the new party.
This political experiment did not last long and after Indira Gandhi’s Congress made a comeback in 1980, it dismissed the Pawar government. Kalmadi, however, stuck with Pawar and was rewarded with a Rajya Sabha seat in 1982, the first of his four terms in the Upper House of Parliament.
Though he had thrown in his lot with Pawar, Kalmadi had already come to the attention of the Gandhis when he started making his mark in local politics, and this link propelled his political rise years later. In 1977, Kalmadi and another activist had thrown slippers at then Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s car and protested when he was visiting Tilak Smarak Mandir in Pune. Sanjay Gandhi took note of this and in 1980, he was introduced to Rajiv Gandhi at the National Defence Academy’s graduation parade. The two struck an instant rapport because of their past careers as pilots.
Years as a sports administrator
Kalmadi returned to the Congress along with Pawar in 1986. His rising clout had also seen him in top positions at sports bodies, starting with the Maharashtra State Athletics Federation president in 1980 and selection chairman of the Athletics Federation of India in 1987. He had first made a name for himself as a sports organiser with the Pune Marathon in 1983.
Besides the marathon, Kalmadi also started the Pune Festival, a cultural event held during Ganesh Utsav festivities, the Pune Vyaspeeth, and the National Games. The Vyaspeeth was an apolitical forum where experts and intellectuals from different fields gathered to put forth their views for the development of Pune. He was close to top industrial houses such as the Bajajs and the Firodias, and links helped him find sponsors for his events, said Pune Congress old-timers who knew him.
He served as the Union Minister of State for Railways for a year (1995-96) and was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996. That year also marked the start of his run as the Indian Olympic Association president, which came to an end in 2011.
Congress leaders said after the party returned to power in the aftermath of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, Kalmadi was part of a bid to make Pawar the Prime Minister. “However, senior leaders such as Shankarrao B Chavan and Arjun Singh pitched for P V Narasimha Rao,” said a Congress leader who was close to Kalmadi.
Despite another brief parting of ways with the Congress in 1998, Kalmadi, who formed the Pune Vikas Agadi after being denied a Lok Sabha poll ticket, continued to remain a major player in Pune politics, to a large degree due to his good equation with the Opposition. The second time Kalmadi proved his political importance was during the 1999 Rajya Sabha elections, which he contested as an Independent. He defeated the Congress nominee, leaving the party rattled.
Eventually, he returned to the Congress and was back in the Lok Sabha from Pune in 2004 and was re-elected in 2009. This remained the last high point in his political career.
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