Gopinath Munde new sugar baron of Maharashtra

PUNE: BJP veteran Gopinath Munde is the new sugar baron of Maharashtra. Mr Munde has dethroned the state’s much-famed sugar barons. Mr Munde controls about 12 mills in both the cooperative and the private sector.

Exact figures are hard to come by, but senior officials at several cooperative mills said the Munde group is regarded as having 25 mills. Official records note that the cooperative mills under his control crush 6,250 tonnes of cane per day (tcd). At the second place is another non-Congress, non-NCP Vinay Kore.

Not to be left too far behind is BJP’s national president Nitin Gadkari.