Gaikwad

New Delhi, April 15: The only time Satyajit Gaikwad made it to Parliament was in 1996 when he won a hard-fought battle against the BJP by a margin of 17 votes from Vadodara.

What made the victory all the more delectable was that not only had he beaten a formidable opponent but he was up against a cabal from his own party, the Congress, which was determined to have him trounced.

“For the first time we became aware of his steely spirit. His speeches were aggressive and he battled all alone,” said a former Vadodara district Congress chief.

Satyajit’s political graph has since slumped but nobody in the Congress is prepared to underestimate his survival skills.

Satyajit facilitated his entry into the Congress by allegedly using his “connection” to the erstwhile Gaikwad royal clan.

Later, it seems, royal family scion Sangramsinh Gaikwad, who Satyajit claimed was a close relation, told friends he was perhaps a “distant” cousin.

Still, by the family’s yardstick, Satyajit was a successful politician. He won several local elections, was once an MLA, and went on to head the Youth Congress in 1996. It helped that he was “promoted” by a powerful Congress politician from Gujarat.

When he lost election after election post-1996, his “godfather” in Delhi ensured Satyajit was placed in the central Congress organisation as a secretary.

With the Congress down in Gujarat, it seems Satyajit tapped the BJP for a ticket in an election. But chief minister Narendra Modi reportedly rejected his overtures.

So when he levelled serious charges against Modi, was he trying to settle an old score?

It amused his Congress colleagues to see Modi break into a sweat over Satyajit’s allegation that he was in cahoots with IPL commissioner Lalit Modi to outbid Kochi and raise a team for Ahmedabad. The chief minister has denied the charges.

Unlike many of the stakeholders whose cricket links seem suspect, Satyajit has had a long association with the sport. He played for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy and was a peer of Kiran More and Ravi Shastri. He is also a relative of former Test player, selector and administrator Anshuman Gaekwad.

When Satyajit was an MP, cricketers frequented his South Avenue home. He may have been a vegetarian but he ensured that players like Mohammed Azharuddin were never short of butter chicken at the meals he hosted.

Out of Delhi, Satyajit found it hard to get a toehold in the Congress’s central organisation. He apparently hates being called a “regional” leader.

In IPL circles, Satyajit’s penchant for big titles is a joke. It is believed he first projected himself as Kochi’s CEO before settling for a lesser designation. The promoters called his bluff by formally appointing him PRO-cum-spokesperson.