Nagpur/Yavatmal: Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha MP Sanjay Deshmukh is on the verge of defecting from Shiv Sena (UBT) to the faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. This would mark his fifth party switch in three decades, not counting his tenure as an Independent in the state assembly. Deshmukh has navigated through the united Shiv Sena, Congress, BJP, UBT, and now the expected move to the Shinde camp, demonstrating remarkable political resilience.
A Political Survivor
Deshmukh, a first-generation politician, started his career at the grassroots level in Digras, a taluka in Yavatmal. A commerce graduate, he joined Shiv Sena in the mid-1990s and rose to become the party's Yavatmal district chief alongside Sanjay Rathod, now a Shinde Sena minister and his long-time rival.
Denied an assembly ticket in 1999, Deshmukh contested as an independent from Digras and won by a narrow margin of 126 votes. He served as Minister of State for Youth and Sports from 2001 to 2004 in a Congress-led alliance. In 2004, he retained the Digras seat as an independent with a margin of over 2,500 votes.
Party Hopping Over the Years
In 2009, Deshmukh joined Congress but lost the Digras seat after delimitation. He switched to BJP in 2014, but when denied a ticket for the 2019 assembly polls, he contested as an independent and lost again. After the Shiv Sena split in 2022, Deshmukh aligned with the Uddhav Thackeray faction and became the Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, winning by a margin of nearly 1 lakh votes over the Shinde Sena candidate.
The 58-year-old MP is among six UBT Lok Sabha members reportedly part of 'Operation Tiger'. He has been unreachable since Monday and is now in Delhi, where he is expected to meet Deputy CM Eknath Shinde and BJP leaders.
Deshmukh's ability to win elections even without party backing underscores his political acumen. His journey reflects a constant adaptation to changing political landscapes, ensuring his survival in Maharashtra's volatile politics.
