How Satej Patil beat Mahayuti in Maharashtra’s Gokul dairy poll
The single-handed victory of Congress leader and legislator Satej Patil, popularly known as Bunty Patil, in the election to the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers Union has brought him to the centre stage of state politics once again. The union, popularly known by its famous brand name Gokul, is the largest one in Maharashtra.
Patil, the party’s Kolhapur district president and an MLC, led his panel to a victory in 13 out of 25 seats with a clear majority, taking on all three ruling parties in Maharashtra: BJP, Shiv Sena, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The son of the late education baron D Y Patil — after whom the cricket stadium in Navi Mumbai is named — Patil won the battle against the combined strength of 10 MLAs, two state Cabinet Ministers, and two MPs from the ruling alliance. Before the election, the BJP had claimed that it would win all 25 seats. On the day of counting, the announcement of final results was delayed for many hours for reasons not specified, but ultimately the Congress leader emerged victorious.
This election is expected to have ramifications for the coming Legislative Council polls. In the beleaguered state Congress, Patil’s win has turned him into a leader to watch out for. Before this, earlier this year, the 54-year-old Patil had ensured Congress emerged as the single-largest party in the Zilla Parishad and municipal corporation polls in Kolhapur. But the three ruling parties combined to stop him from getting a majority.
Alliance that failed
For Patil, the win in the Gokul milk union is nothing new. In 2021, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance was in power and had not yet split, the Congress leader and Hasan Mushrif of the undivided NCP contested the election and won control of Gokul, ending the 30-year dominance of former MLA Mahadevrao Mahadik and the late former MLA P N Patil.
On taking charge, Mushrif and Patil pledged to manage Gokul solely in the interest of dairy farmers. However, political equations in the state changed over the next year. The subsequent splits in the Shiv Sena and the NCP resulted in Mushrif and others joining hands with the BJP. Although the BJP was part of the ruling coalition in the state, Mushrif maintained his stance in Gokul. He publicly affirmed his ties with Patil in the cooperative sector, stating that despite being political opponents at the state level, they remained allies in cooperative affairs. It, however, did not last long and buckling under the pressure from the BJP, Mushrif was forced to abandon this stand.
Gokul, established as a cooperative dairy project on March 16, 1963, is important politically as well as financially. Its annual turnover in 2024-25 was Rs 3,966.28 crore and it is associated with almost 4.41 lakh milk producers in and around Kolhapur district. Milk is collected each day from 8,009 village-level primary societies in around 1,810 villages, making it a crucial factor that political parties have to take into account.
For both the Congress and Patil, the Gokul win presents a hope after the Assembly election rout in 2024, which occurred months after its success in the parliamentary elections. The party failed to win a single seat in Kolhapur district, with Patil failing to ensure the victory of his nephew Ruturaj. At the time, the BJP had labelled it as the end of the Congress leader’s political career and several of his close associates subsequently left to join the ruling Mahayuti alliance.
A storied career
Patil’s legislative career began when he won the 2004 Assembly elections as an Independent from the Karveer seat in Kolhapur. Five years later, he won as a Congress candidate from Kolhapur South. In November 2010, then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan appointed him Minister of State for Home. However, in 2014, he lost the election from Kolhapur South, which soured his relationship with the Mahadik family of Kolhapur, a prominent business and political family in the region, and the rivalry continues to this day.
As the MVA was formed and came to power in 2019, Patil again became an MoS. According to sources, Patil was one of the names the Congress high command had shortlisted as the next state party president after Nana Patole. However, ultimately the party decided to appoint Harshvardhan Sapkal.
The victory in Gokul is set to raise Patil’s stature in the state Congress and the party, according to party insiders, could do with his skills at negotiation and in election planning. “My next target is to help the MVA win two legislative council seats that will go to polls on October 23,” Patil said immediately after the win on Monday.
The seasoned leader likes to keep his political strategies simple. “When you face an election, you have to clearly tell the people about your agenda. The people will come with you if you stick to your ground,” Patil said.
