Datta Meghe, one of Vidarbha’s tallest politicians and education network builder, passes away at 89

Nagpur: Datta Meghe, one of Vidarbha's most enduring political figures and the founder of one of Maharashtra's largest private education networks, passed away on Sunday at the age of 89. His younger son Sameer Meghe, a BJP MLA from Hingna, said, "My father never refused to help anyone who came to him. That is how I want people to remember him."Meghe's passing marks the end of a public life that stretched across five decades, two houses of Parliament, the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and three national parties. Born on November 11, 1936, in Pawnar in Wardha district, Meghe graduated with a BA from Nagpur University in 1963 and worked briefly as a development officer with LIC before entering public life. He entered the Maharashtra Legislative Council in 1978 and served three consecutive terms there until 1991, a run of over 13 years that gave him a firm grounding in state politics. During that stretch, he served as minister of state for housing and civil supplies and technical education, and later as cabinet minister for energy and forests. He also served as leader of opposition in the Legislative Council. Meghe entered the Parliament in 1991, when he won the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket with over 3.28 lakh votes. Meghe had later recalled he contested the election at the personal encouragement of Rajiv Gandhi, whose assassination had briefly delayed the polls. He was re-elected from Ramtek in 1996 and from Wardha in 1998, giving him three consecutive Lok Sabha terms. After a stint in the Rajya Sabha from 2002 to 2008, he returned to the Lok Sabha in 2009 from Wardha. His party affiliations tracked the shifting currents of Maharashtra politics across four decades. He joined Congress in 1978, followed Sharad Pawar into the Nationalist Congress Party when it was formed in 1999, and returned to Congress in 2008. Throughout these years, he remained close to the levers of power — serving as MLC, MP or Rajya Sabha member almost without interruption for over three decades.The break with Congress came in June 2014, after his son Sagar lost the Wardha Lok Sabha seat and the family felt sidelined in the party. Meghe resigned after 36 years of association citing neglect of Vidarbha. He and his sons Sagar and Sameer formally joined the BJP on July 5, 2014, at a rally in Sawangi-Meghe attended by then Maharashtra BJP president Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari. Thousands of supporters made the switch alongside the family.Throughout his career, Meghe was a vocal advocate for a separate Vidarbha state, a cause he championed consistently and pursued with renewed intensity after the central govt carved out Telangana in 2014.Parallel to politics, Meghe built a vast education and healthcare network across rural Maharashtra, anchored by the Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research at Sawangi-Meghe in Wardha, which grew into a deemed university. He believed quality education and healthcare were the only true levers of transformation for Vidarbha's people, and invested decades in that conviction. He is survived by his sons Sagar and Sameer, and other family members.