Umraji Nepalkar, one of the six Shiv Sena parliamentarians, said on Friday that his association with the opposition is hurting his fight for justice for his murdered father, leaving him no option but to change his stance.
Nimbalkar was among six of the Shiv Sena’s nine (UBT) Lok Sabha members, who defied the whip and skipped a meeting of its parliamentary wing on Thursday, as the party looked set to lose two-thirds of its strength in the lower house of Parliament.
Nimbalkar, who was a two-time Lok Sabha member from Darashiv (Osmanabad) in Maharashtra, said he joined politics to seek justice for his father, Pawanraj Nimbalkar.
Former NCP minister Padmasinghe Patil, 86, is one of the accused in the case. Patel’s son, Rana Jagjit Singh Patel, is a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party legislator, and Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar is his half-sister.
Umraji Nepalkar said his association with the opposition weakened his ability to continue his fight because the Patels had the support of the BJP. “I joined politics 20 years ago to fight against those who killed my father. Now it has become difficult to fight alone. The ruling side has prevented me from reaching every level in the constituency.”
People will call him a traitor, but he will have to choose responsibility over loyalty, Umraji Nepalkar said. “So I have no choice but to change my stance for political survival and continue my struggle against that political family,” Nepalkar said.
Umraji Nepalkar said he was awaiting the lower court’s June 20 ruling in his father’s murder case. He added that the ruling was postponed twice. After the ruling, Umraji Nepalkar said that he would tour the Darashiv district to meet his workers and supporters and announce his decision.
He said that if he had been greedy for money and power, he would have joined Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena when he rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray in 2022. “I am not out of any greed but out of compulsion to be politically relevant in Darashiv district and continue my fight against that family even after joining the ruling alliance,” he said.
Nimbalkar’s father, Congress leader Pawanraj Nimbalkar, and his driver, Samad Abdul Wahid Kazi, were killed while on their way from Pune to Mumbai in June 2006.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that Umraji Nimbalkar was promised a favorable sentence against all the nine accused.
Pawanraje Nimbalkar and Padmasinh Patil were first cousins. Their family controlled the politics of Osmanabad in Marathwada through cooperative bodies. Nepalkar lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections to his cousin from Osmanabad by a narrow margin.
