Shirdi: Amol Khatal, a small-time cyber café owner, beat veteran Congress leader and former minister Balasaheb Thorat in Sangamner constituency, surprising everyone.
The son of a farmer ran in this election on his personal repo and social work. Having no political background or experience as a lawmaker, Amol turned into one of the “Giant Killers” in the Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
Amol polled 112,386 votes against Thorat’s 101,826 votes, thereby winning by 10,560 votes. He maintained the lead in every round of counting on Saturday except for the postal voting round till the end. Thorat could not take the lead in any of the rounds.
Who is Amol Khatal?
Amol ran for the Sangamner seat on the Shiv Sena ticket led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 elections. The Sangamner seat went to the party led by Shinde in the Mahayuti seat-sharing arrangement.
While in the BJP, he was a close confidant of senior leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil. Radhakrishna’s son Sujay had led Khatal’s campaigning from the front, holding as many as six rallies.
Amol made his political debut with Congress as its office bearer for the Sangamner taluka before joining the saffron party. After changing his loyalties multiple times, he banked on his past performance using his major public relations in the area.
A few years ago, Amol came to the city to earn his livelihood and started a cyber café near the bus stop, through which he got a chance to interact with people, especially youths and school students. Amol became popular among people as he would solve their social, political, and other problems.
Winning Comments
After winning, Amol vowed to end the “reign of terror” unleashed by supporters of Thorat in the Sangamner taluka.
“Sangamner had remained in the grip of people who have unleashed terror…This has happened for years. Now that I have been elected, I will ensure that people are freed from the regime of slavery and can breathe freely. I will effectively put an end to the reign of terror,” he told the media.
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