India, Sept. 8 -- Before the Maratha community could get the benefit of Manoj Jarange-Patil's latest agitation, the first beneficiary turned out to be Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, the senior BJP minister who heads the state cabinet's sub-committee on Maratha reservation and led the negotiations with the activist.

Vikhe-Patil was the leader of the opposition in the assembly during Fadnavis' first tenure as chief minister and led the Congress attack on the government. Ahead of the assembly election in 2019, he quit the party and joined the BJP. He was given the key revenue department during Eknath Shinde's tenure, and at that point was perceived as future competition for Fadnavis. He also built bridges with the party's top leaders.

When the ...