Newsmaker: Advocate, protester, BJP supporter – a three-in-one face in MSRTC row

It wasn’t the first time Sadavarte was in the news for his cases or his speeches. Be it the Maratha reservation protests, the Param Bir and Anil Deshmukh row, or the MSRTC staffers’ demand to be treated on par with state government employees, he has been at the forefront.

On November 8 last year, the Maharashtra government had told the Bombay High Court that it had constituted a three-member committee, as per its directions, to resolve the MSRTC workers’ issues. But the government’s hopes of the matter being settled were dashed when Sadavarte declared that the employees would continue the strike till their demand was implemented. Last month, he told the court that the workers were not on strike but “in mourning”, for the deaths of their colleagues.

On Thursday, in a victory for the MSRTC employees, the High Court directed the corporation to drop its charges against the staffers and reinstate those who were terminated if they resumed work by April 22.

During his remand hearing Saturday, Sadavarte’s counsel argued that he had been implicated as he had taken on the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government over various cases.

Last year, on April 5, the Bombay High Court had initiated a Preliminary Enquiry by the CBI based on a complaint by Sadavarte’s wife and lawyer Jaishri Patil, which referred to former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s corruption charges against then Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. The High Court had asked police to take cognizance of her complaint and sought registration of an FIR.

Represented by Sadavarte, Patil had also moved the Supreme Court against the 2019 decision by the Bombay High Court which upheld the Maharashtra government’s decision to provide reservation to the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018. In May last year, the Supreme Court struck down the provisions of the SEBC Act, since it took the total quota in the state above the 50% ceiling.

The fact that every case Sadavarte fights is somehow helpful to the BJP or against the MVA government has not gone unnoticed. Says Sairang Barge, a union leader aligned with the Congress: “Sadavarte has always been a supporter of the BJP… In the MSRTC strike too, he provoked the staffers to remain on strike even though he knew that their demand was impossible. He kept the issue alive, which did not benefit anyone except the Opposition.”

A native of Nanded and a lawyer, Sadavarte claims to have been part of agitations since his youth, including starting a Samyak Vidyarthi Andolan to raise issues of students. However, his moment of real fame came with the MSRTC matter, especially when the corporation filed a contempt petition against Ajay Kumar Gujar, who gave notice of the strike last year. Gujar’s Maharashtra State Kanishth Kamgar Shreni Kamagar Sanghatna is small compared to the major MSRTC unions, but was left in the lead after the latter, including the only registered union of the NCP, called off the strike.

It was when Gujar was struggling to find legal representation due to financial constraints that Sadavarte stepped forward to help him. At the same time, two BJP leaders, MLC Gopichand Padalkar and Sadabhau Khot, came in support of the striking staffers.

Interestingly, soon after, Khot, Padalkar and Gujar withdrew following a meeting the employees had with State Transport Minister Anil Parab. That left the field open for Sadavarte, who virtually became the counsel for nearly 48,000 staffers.

Sadavarte has been blaming Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for issues faced by MSRTC staffers, while thanking BJP leaders for their support.

A day before his arrest too, he criticised Pawar while thanking BJP leaders Chandrakant Patil and former CM Devendra Fadnavis. On Friday, the main complaint raised by the agitating employees outside Pawar’s house was that the NCP supremo had failed to help them.