A long-time confidant of Ajit Pawar, 68-year-old Sunil Tatkare has suddenly vaulted into the limelight as the newly appointed deputy chief minister handpicked him as the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Maharashtra president. The announcement came on a day when NCP chief Sharad Pawar announced the expulsion of Tatkare and Praful Patel, another MP and a leader believed to be close to Pawar, for “anti-party activities” as the tug-of-war between Ajit and Pawar continued for control of the party. The appointment — and expulsion — of Tatkare, who is one of the party’s top leaders from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, comes a month after Pawar appointed him the NCP’s national general secretary. But in less than a month the state’s political topography has changed. “I am glad the party has reposed faith in my ability. I will do my best,” Tatkare said following the announcement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f3w0qlvcjA&pp=ygUPI2hhcnNodGFnIGluZGlh Tatkare’s daughter Aditi is among the nine NCP leaders who were sworn in as Cabinet ministers on Sunday. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is probing Tatkare in a case of alleged irregularities in irrigation projects during Ajit Pawar’s tenure as the irrigation minister. In the chargesheet that the ACB filed in 2017, it mentioned Tatkare’s name, although not as an accused at that point. Officers said a separate chargesheet would be filed later. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also begun a preliminary enquiry against Tatkare in 2012 in connection with the same case. Tatkare has always preferred to remain involved in the rough and tumble of Maharashtra politics but the party made him contest the Lok Sabha elections from Raigad in 2014 when he lost to incumbent MP Anant Geete of the Shiv Sena. His Assembly seat, meanwhile, went to his nephew Avdhoot. Five years later, Tatkare contested the general elections again, but this time he managed to defeat Geete. Meanwhile, his daughter Aditi successfully retained Shrivardhan. By his own admission, Tatkare’s heart was not in national politics. “My heart is in Maharashtra politics, I don't really like Delhi politics,” he said in a recent conversation. The image of Tatkare sitting behind Baramati MP Supriya Sule, Pawar’s daughter, intently watching the proceedings in the Lok Sabha with a grin on his face earned him the “smiling Buddha” sobriquet. Even those who have political differences with him say that he politely makes his point and is not arrogant. Ministerial experience Tatkare completed his science degree at Pune’s Fergusson College and worked as a government road contractor before venturing into electoral politics in the 1980s. In 1995, he contested the Assembly election from the Shrivardhan constituency in Raigad on a Congress ticket and became an MLA for the first time. He presented the constituency till 2014 when the party deployed him in the parliamentary elections. When Sharad Pawar parted ways with the Congress to form the NCP in 1999, Tatkare moved to the newly floated party. He served as Minister of State for Urban Development and Ports from 1999 to 2003 and also held crucial portfolios such as water resources and finance in the Congress-NCP coalition government. He was appointed the Minister of Food and Civil Supplies in 2004 and four years later became the energy minister. Tatkare’s rise and the heavyweight ministries he was given the responsibility of surprised many NCP veterans and indicated to them that Ajit Pawar had started asserting himself on organisational matters in the party. During Prithviraj Chavan’s chief ministerial tenure, Tatkare served as the water resources minister from November 2010 to September 2014. He also held the finance and planning portfolio from November 2009 to November 2010. Tatkare’s previous tenure as NCP state president ran from February 2015 to April 2018.
