Controversial politician leading Maharashtra farmer protests: Meet Bachchu Kadu, who once disguised himself as ‘Yusuf Pathan’

Known for his brash style of politics, Prahar Janshakti Party (PJP) chief and former MLA Omprakash Babarao Kadu, better known as Bachchu Kadu, has grabbed the spotlight yet again, this time for leading the “Maha Elgar Morcha” called by farmer organisations demanding loan waivers.

On Wednesday, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court took suo motu notice of the National Highway-44 (Nagpur–Hyderabad highway) being blocked by thousands of farmers under Kadu’s leadership and directed them to vacate the road. Even as the police reached the site, the protesting farmers refused to budge.

Kadu, along with other farmer leaders such as Swabhimani Paksha’s Raju Shetti, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) chief Mahadev Jankar, and Ajit Nawale, met Devendra Fadnavis over the issue on Thursday, following which the Chief Minister said the state government would take a final decision on the issue of a complete farm loan waiver by June 30 next year.

Fifty-four-year-old Kadu’s politics, persistent focus on the welfare of the disabled and rough image have created a unique persona for him in Maharashtra politics.

In 2021, he donned a Pathani suit and skull cap, disguising himself as a Muslim man and calling himself “Yusuf Pathan” to “evaluate the functioning of government offices” in Akola district, where he was the Guardian Minister during the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s tenure. To check whether corruption was rampant, “Yusuf Pathan” visited a tehsil office and a cooperative bank, offering bribes to get a ration card and avail an agricultural loan. Both officials refused. Kadu later felicitated the bank official for his honesty.

A decade earlier, the PJP president was accused of thrashing a clerk in Mantralaya, a case in which he was later acquitted. His 2016 assault of a Mantralaya official triggered a flash strike by officers. Two years later, he was booked for threatening to assault an IAS officer with his iPad. Earlier this year, he was convicted in the case but is currently out on bail after appealing against the conviction in a higher court.

Kadu, then an MLA, also found himself in the crosshairs of BJP MP Hema Malini after he claimed “she drinks every day.” Refuting suggestions that farmer suicides in Nanded were linked to alcoholism, he said, “Hema Malini drinks heavily every day — did she commit suicide?” Malini condemned the remark and threatened legal action, though no case was eventually filed.

The only leader to have won the Achalpur Assembly seat in Amravati district of Vidarbha four times, Kadu won thrice as an Independent (2009, 2014, 2019) and once as a PJP candidate. In 2014, he defeated the Congress nominee and five years later contested as part of the Congress–NCP alliance. He later extended support to the MVA government and was appointed Minister of State in Uddhav Thackeray’s Cabinet, holding the key Water Resources portfolio.

However, he was among the first legislators to walk out of the MVA in 2022 along with Shiv Sena chief and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, accompanying him to Guwahati. Under the Shinde-led Mahayuti government, Kadu was appointed chairman of the Divyang Welfare Department with Cabinet rank in May 2023.

Things between the Mahayuti and Kadu have since soured. His decision not to back the BJP’s Amravati candidate Navneet Rana is seen as one of the key reasons for the BJP’s loss there to the Congress.

Following the Lok Sabha debacle, in the Assembly polls, the BJP fielded Praveen Tayade against Kadu and wrested the Achalpur seat. This defeat pushed Kadu closer to the political margins, prompting his resignation as chairman of the Divyang Welfare Department. In a further setback, a former PJP MLA also recently joined the Congress. However, by leading the farmer protests, Kadu is attempting to bring his political career back on track.