BJP president Nitin Gadkari's cooperative society, the Purti Group, has acquired the ailing Wainganga sugar factory at Devada village in Bhandara, which happens to be NCP leader and civil aviation minister Praful Patel's constituency

The defunct factory owned by NCP leaders was mortgaged to the Maharshtra Cooperative Bank. Villagers had been pleading for its revival, but Patel was apparently not interested. With farmers' suicides still a burning issue in Vidarbha, the villagers were concerned about the revival of the factory.

The Purti Group purchased the sick factory at a price of more than Rs 14.10 crore. With a fresh capital infusion of Rs 100 crore, the factory will also be a pilot project for power generation through sugarcane waste.

As Gadkari visited the place and promised jobs for the locals at the factory and micro-finance to farmers to buy imported sugarcane harvesters.

Criticising Sharad Pawar and Patel, Gadkari told hundreds of sugarcane producers: “You go without power for hours... but the minister and his leader, Sharad Pawar, waste time watching cricket and cheerleaders at night. This will come to an end when the factory generates power and sells it to the government and makes profit.”

About 5,000 people will get jobs and 2,00,000 farmers will benefit, he added.