Samit Kadam becomes centre of controversy as Fadnavis-Deshmukh war of words snowballs

Mumbai: Miraj-based Samit Balasaheb Kadam has become the centre of controversy in Maharashtra amid charges and counter-charges by Anil Deshmukh and Devendra Fadnavis.

The issue is snowballing into a major Maha Yuti (NDA) vs Maha Vikas Aghadi (I.N.D.I.A.) clash in the run up to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections as it connects to the toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray-government in which Deshmukh was the Home Minister, before his arrest by the ED and CBI in an alleged money-laundering case.

Days after Deshmukh claimed that Fadnavis, the then Leader of Opposition, had pressurised him into naming the Thackeray family and other MVA leaders ahead of the Thackeray-led government's fall, he identified the man who carried the sealed envelope with the affidavits as Samit Kadam, whom he described as Fadnavis' pointperson.

Fadnavis, however, earlier rejected the charges and said that he had audio-visual evidence against Deshmukh on the latter’s comments against Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, the chief architects of MVA.

Levelling a series of charges on Monday, Deshmukh and Thackeray’s aide Sanjay Raut wanted to know as to why Y-category security cover had been provided to Samit Kadam.

Deshmukh said that Kadam had come to him five to six times and wanted him to trap the Thackeray father-son duo and Ajit Pawar, among others. However, he did not buckle under pressure. “I had flatly refused,” Deshmukh said.

“Fadnavis is the villain in all this. He has blatantly misused the home ministry and the investigating agencies against the Opposition parties/leaders,” said Raut, the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member.

He also said that he had written a four-page letter to the then Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu about the harassment, threats and pressure tactics he was facing. “This is on record,” he added.

Deshmukh and Raut reiterated that Samit Kadam is close to Fadnavis.

On his part, Samit Kadam denied the charges. “These charges are baseless…Deshmukh has lost his bearings and there’s no point in replying to Raut,” he had said.

Samit Kadam’s profile on his website identifies him as President of Jansurajya Yuva Shakti-Maharashtra, and describes his politics, social work.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye posted on X a photo of Samit Kadam and Aaditya Thackeray together in one frame. “If there is really solid evidence, go to court, don't spread fake narratives unnecessarily,” he said.

On the other hand, state BJP Women’s Wing President Chitra Wagh posted a photo of Sharad Pawar with Samit Kadam.