Maharashtra politics: Popular face of Amaravati, Sunil Deshmukh to rejoin Congress

BJP's Sunil Deshmukh will be joining the Congress party which he left after he was sidelined over Raosaheb Shekhawat in the 2009 assembly elections. His political journey has come full circle after leaving Congress and starting his own party to later join BJP.

Amaravati (Maharashtra): BJP politician and former minister of state, Dr Sunil Deshmukh is all set to rejoin Congress and he will be received at a ceremony organized in Tilak Bhavan in Mumbai on June 19. With his re-entry, it is felt that Congress will get a strong leader in the Vidarbha region due to his popularity in Amaravati. Starting his days at NSUI and leaving the Congress after frictions emerged when Raosaheb Shekhawat was preferred over him to later forming his own party but joining BJP after that, Deshmukh's political journey has come into a full circle.

On June 11 night, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole and Sunil Deshmukh dined together in the city where one more person also joined them. The announcement of Deshmukh joining Congress followed shortly. Deshmukh then told reporters that Nana Patole was his good friend and they have been friends ever since they were elected in 1999.

An alumnus of Government Medical College of Nagpur, Deshmukh, during his college days, joined NSUI and became its president in 1979. He completed his masters in radiology and entered active politics. He had by then become the president of Youth Congress. He was fielded against BJP's popular face Jagdish Gupta in Amaravati during the 1999 assembly elections and defeated him with a margin of 10,000 votes. He was the Vice President of Vidarbha Statutory Development Corporation from 1999-2004.

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His developmental works in Amaravati earned him goodwill among the public and he easily drubbed Jagadish Gupta with a stellar margin of 32000 plus votes during the assembly elections in 2004. Deshmukh was also appointed the guardian minister of Amaravati from 2004 - 2009 during Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan cabinet.

But trouble brewed in 2009 when Raosaheb Shekhawat, son of former President Pratibha Patil, entered Amaravati politics. Congress preferred Shekhawat over Deshmukh in the 2009 assembly elections. In later developments, Sunil Deshmukh was expelled from the Congress party for expressing his displeasure over the party's decision. He contested against Congress candidate Raosaheb Shekhawat as an independent but was defeated by six and a half thousand votes.

He formed an independent party as Jan Vikas Congress Party in 2011 in view of Amaravati Municipal Corporation elections and his party did manage to win seven seats in the municipal corporation elections in 2012. Having joined BJP in September 2014, Deshmukh defeated Raosaheb Shekhawat by 35,000 votes during the assembly elections held in October 2014.

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Deshmukh expected that the Congress party will call him back in 2019 after the party did not have a candidate since Raosaheb Shekhawat made it clear that he would not contest the elections but it did not happen. Deshmukh contested on behalf of the BJP but was defeated by Congress candidate Sulbha Khodke. It is believed that Sunil Deshmukh was not given due importance because he was considered Nitin Gadkari's loyalist which did not go well with the Fadnavis faction.

Commenting on his homecoming, Deshmukh said, "My thoughts are basically with Congress. Everyone knows the circumstances under which I had to contest for the BJP. I am not angry with anyone in the BJP as well. Nitin Gadkari and Devendra Fadnavis are my best friends. I have been in Congress since 1978. I will not ask any of my loyalists or corporators to leave the BJP and come with me. It is not my nature to speak out against the party I belonged to previously".