Mumbai: Ranjitsinh Naik Nimbalkar has long been among a handful of BJP assets in Satara, a region dominated by political heavyweights and one where the party has struggled to gain a foothold. But a 28-year-old government doctor’s suicide last week thrust the former MP into controversy, with opposition parties and even some in the ruling alliance questioning his alleged role in pressuring her.
Though Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis gave Nimbalkar a clean chit on Sunday, the controversy threatens BJP’s carefully cultivated presence in NCP’s traditional bastion.
A political storm erupted last week when the doctor, who belonged to the state’s Beed district, was found hanging in a hotel room in Phaltan taluka of Satara. A note scrawled on her palm said a police sub-inspector had raped her multiple times and that her landlord’s son had sexually harassed her. Both men were arrested.
But it was a letter, purportedly written by the doctor earlier in the year, that dragged Nimbalkar into the wrangle.
In it, the doctor said a former MP had pressured her to alter medical reports of an arrested person. Opposition parties named Nimbalkar as that former MP.
In the letter, the doctor wrote of threats from police officials and taunts about her Beed origins. Beed made headlines last year following the murder of a sarpanch and complaints about extortion from windmill power plants there.
Ambadas Danve, a former MLC from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, posted excerpts from the letter on X, alleging Nimbalkar’s involvement in the threats. It said the doctor had recommended hospital treatment for the accused whose blood pressure was high. But, the letter reads, two personal assistants of Nimbalkar approached her and asked her to speak to the former MP.
Danve said Nimbalkar told the doctor police were complaining that she was not declaring the accused physically fit because she was from Beed. The Shiv Sena leader also said the accused being referred to in the case was named in an FIR filed by a private company that belongs to Nimbalkar.
Questions have been raised even within the ruling Mahayuti alliance.
Dhananjay Munde, a former minister from the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), alleged that personal assistants of a “former MP” were involved.
BJP MLA Suresh Dhas, who represents the Ashti constituency in Beed, said a day before Fadnavis’ clean chit for Nimbalkar that the investigation would reveal if any former MP or his assistants had exerted political pressure on the doctor. “If they are found to be responsible, they should be made an accused in the case,” said Dhas.
Leader of Opposition and Congress’s Rahul Gandhi termed the doctor’s death “institutional murder” in an X post on Sunday.
“The very authority tasked with protecting the public from criminals committed the most heinous crime against this innocent woman — rape and exploitation. According to reports, some influential individuals associated with the BJP also attempted to pressure her into corruption. This is the most despicable example of a criminally protected ideology,” he wrote.
Fadnavis’s defence
Speaking in Phaltan in an event organised by Nimbalkar on Sunday, CM Fadnavis was unequivocal in his support for the former BJP MP.
“These days, politics is being mixed with everything and we have been seeing this absolutely condemnable attempt even in this case. Without any reason, Ranjit dada and Sachin Patil’s [Phaltan MLA] name was dragged in this incident. Maharashtra knows Deva Bhau. Even if I had an ounce of suspicion, I would have scrapped the programme and not come here,” he said.
The chief minister added that the doctor’s death would be probed thoroughly and those responsible would be brought to justice.
Also Read: Woman doctor’s suicide: Pankaja Munde meets kin in Beed, vows to fight for justice
Nimbalkar, too, denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations “petty politics”.
“I also have two daughters. When our name is associated with such a disgusting incident, we feel terrible…When my mind is clean, I am not scared of anyone,” he said at Sunday’s event.
Why BJP needs Nimbalkar
Fadnavis’s swift defence may be rooted in political calculus.
Nimbalkar, who joined the BJP from Congress in 2019, has been crucial for the party to establish its presence in Phaltan and Man in Satara district.
“Satara is a place with too many political heavyweights and the BJP doesn’t really have much of a presence there. Ranjitsinh Naik Nimbalkar is the party’s only key face in the region, and with local elections coming up, BJP wouldn’t want any immediate upsets. That’s why Fadnavis may have rushed to defend him,” said Nitin Birmal, a Pune-based political analyst. Polls to urban local bodies, gram panchayats and zila parishads are expected across the state in the next few months.
Nimbalkar in 2019 delivered the NCP stronghold of Madha — a seat patriarch Sharad Pawar had contested and won in the past — for BJP. But he was defeated by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP in last year’s Lok Sabha election by over 1.2 lakh votes.
A storied lineage
Nimbalkar’s political weight derives partly from his family name.
The Naik Nimbalkars are among Maharashtra’s oldest Maratha families. They ruled Phaltan and were associated with the Chhatrapati of Satara under the Maratha empire. Saibai, the first wife of Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, belonged to the Nimbalkar dynasty.
Malojiraje Naik Nimbalkar, the last ruler of Phaltan before it joined India, was a minister in the Morarji Desai cabinet in the then state of Bombay. The present-day state secretariat, Mantralaya, is believed to have been built when Malojiraje was the public works development (PWD) minister.
Ranjitsinh is the son of Hindurao Naik Nimbalkar, who was elected as Satara MP on a Shiv Sena ticket in 1996.
Ranjitsinh grew within the Congress, serving as the party’s Satara district president, before making the switch to the BJP in 2019 — a decision that proved immediately fruitful with his 2019 victory.
But the Nimbalkar name is not united in politics.
Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar, Malojiraje’s grandson and a direct descendent of the Phaltan ruler, has been Ranjitsinh’s political rival for years. Ramraje entered politics in 1991 as chairman of the municipal council and later became an independent MLA in 1995. When Sharad Pawar formed the NCP in 1999, Ramraje joined him. He is currently with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
The rivalry between the two branches of the family has been bitter. Though the Ajit Pawar-led NCP is a BJP ally, Ramraje did not campaign for Ranjitsinh in last year’s Lok Sabha election. There were also clashes between the two factions in the run-up to assembly elections last year.
On Saturday, as the Opposition raised questions over Ranjitsinh’s involvement in the doctor’s death, Ramraje made a calibrated statement to reporters.
“This incident has definitely defamed Phaltan. Why has it happened? Because of who has it happened? It could be someone exerting pressure. It will soon be revealed with modern technological aids like CDRs (call data records). I believe Fadnavis’s intelligence and I don’t want to say anything more about it. I will speak at an appropriate time.”
(Edited by Prerna Madan)