MumbaiJul 16, 2025 17:07 IST
First published on: Jul 16, 2025 at 17:07 IST
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With the appointment of Shashikant Shinde, seen to be a non-controversial, low-key Maratha leader from Western Maharashtra as its state unit chief, the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) has signalled its intent to regain its presence in its traditional strongholds.
A Mathadi (porter) union leader, 61-year-old Shinde hails from Satara and will take over from Jayant Patil, the party’s longest serving state president and a fellow Maratha leader from neighbouring Sangli district.
After his appointment, Shinde, who is the leader of the Mathadi community in the Navi Mumbai Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), visited the union’s office. “I paid my respects to the late (Mathadi union leader) Annasaheb Patil, who has guided me and showed me the way forward,” he said.
Shinde also assured that he would work “day and night” to build the NCP (SP) so that “it could reclaim power”. “There is a huge political vacuum that needs to be filled by the Opposition. I am sure that the people of Maharashtra will come to us in large numbers if we stand strong as an organisation. It is a great honour that someone like me, who comes from a simple background, climbed up the political ladder and is now given the opportunity to lead the party,” he said.
While Shinde’s appointment has put to rest speculation that the party would appoint a member of the Pawar family as the state chief, it also signals party president Sharad Pawar’s intent on restructuring and rebuilding the NCP (SP) to regain ground, which it had ceded to Ajit Pawar post the split in 2023.
An MLC since 2020, Shinde had been seen as close to Ajit and served as Minister of State for Water Resources between 2013 and 2014 in the Congress-NCP government. However, during the split, Shinde had sided with Sharad Pawar.
Before he became an MLC in 2020, Shinde won four Assembly elections, twice from the Jaoli seat, in 1999 and 2004. Post the 2008 delimitation, he won the Koregaon Assembly seat in 2009 and retained it five years later. However, he lost the seat in 2019 to Mahesh Shinde of the Shiv Sena (then united), and again in 2024.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls last year, Shinde was accused of misappropriation in the APMC, which he headed, and faced the prospect of arrest. “I am not scared and will continue to fight. Let them arrest me. They are using all possible means to trouble me. This is the second revolution after Independence to keep democracy alive, and every one of us should fight together,” he said in a rally in Karad.
After he lost from Satara in the Lok Sabha polls to the BJP’s Chhatrapati Udayanraje Bhosale by around 32,000 votes, Shinde claimed that the fact that there was an Independent in the race with a symbol similar to the NCP (SP)’s had cost him the seat. Gade secured 37,000 votes in the contest.
While he is seen as non-controversial among political circles, Shinde has had his brushes with controversy. In 2021, his supporters pelted stones at the party office in Satara after Shinde lost the Satara District Central Cooperative Bank elections by one vote. Shinde later told the media that the incident was “a result of emotional outburst” of his supporters and that he had apologised to Pawar senior for it.
While rebuilding the NCP (SP) is Shinde’s big challenge, he may also find it difficult to retain his MLC seat, after his tenure ends in August next year. The NCP (SP) has only 10 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.