Mumbai Feeling fit at 94 and also being the oldest to contest the legislative assembly elections is no big deal for sitting MLA and sugar baron Appasaheb alias Satgonda Revgonda Patil from Shirol, a constituency in Kolhapur district, western Maharashtra.

There is nothing exclusive about the secret of his health, he says. “My mantra is my work, eating simple food and my daily meetings with the people of my constituency.”

Patil rises early and is out of his house by 8am to campaign — which he does painstakingly, meeting as many voters as he can and at times addressing meetings. A daily routine for years is his morning visit to the sugar factory Shree Datta Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana, that he set up in 1971 when agriculturists were eager to have a sugar factory in their town to ensure all-round development and economic prosperity to all farmers including the poor and marginalised ones.

His secretary, Ashok Shinde, says, “He is extraordinarily active and very involved with development in his constituency. More than anything, he enjoys an interaction with people from all sections of society.”

Patil is married to Krishnabai, 85, and has a son, a daughter and four granddaughters from his son, Ganpatrao, who himself is a grandfather. His son says, “Even at this age, my father is physically fit to carry development of his constituency. We are proud he is the oldest candidate.”

Patil’s name was on the first list of the Congress party which had in the past denied him a ticket in 2004 citing his old age, but that didn’t deter the veteran Congressman who contested in 2009 and defeated the nominee, Ulhas Patil, of the Swabhiman Shetkari Sanghatna (SSS), a popular farmers’ organisation. In fact, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was so impressed by Patil during his tour of western Maharashtra in March 2009, that he suggested he should be nominated for the assembly polls that year.

Patil first contested elections in 1957 as an Independent and had defeated the Congress candidate. And then during the next three decades, he kept away from electoral politics. Instead, he began focusing on his sugar factory that now employs 5,000 people and pays sugarcane farmers Rs2,500 (Dh149.21) per quintal, the highest paid in Western Maharashtra. He also works with farmers on the latest farming techniques.

A charitable trust of his sugar factory set up the Datta Polytechnic College — offering courses in electronics and telecommunication, computer, civil and mechanical engineering — and is the first institute to provide higher technical education in Shirol. Patil says, “The trust’s main aim is to develop technically-trained human capacity to realise the vision of a developed nation by 2020 as well as responsible citizens of India.”

For someone who is just a seventh class pass, his ideals are high and says that the youth can learn a lesson or two from his life and experiences.

From his electoral defeats in 1962 and 1967, he returned to active politics in 1991 and lost first attempt in Lok Sabha elections. But in 1999 he won the assembly elections and then once again in 2009. It has to be seen whether the voters will place their trust him in once again.