The last of the breed

Ganpatrao Deshmukh was that rare politician who led a simple life; he will be remembered most for his part in the farmers’ agitation and for making employment guarantee scheme’s wages uniform for all staff

My photojournalist colleague, Pradeep Dhivar, was utterly shocked when I took him to the then sitting MLA Ganpatrao Deshmukh’s house at Sangola in Solapur district in 2019, because he couldn’t believe a senior politician like him could stay in such conditions. I told Pradeep that the 45-year-old house looked much better now than five years ago. The home still had broken old tiles, but the cracks were filled and there were poorly painted, creaky doors. The furniture bore signs of age and frequent repairing. I wanted an interview with Deshmukh, who had decided to not contest just before the 2019 Assembly polls, and was campaigning for his grandson Dr Aniket, who was the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) candidate for those elections. Since both were out rallying, we decided to chase them in the constituency. We got hold of them late in the evening in a small village.

What was so special about Deshmukh, 95, who passed away on July 30 after an illness, apart from being austere and sincere? He held the only remaining ‘red bastion’ of the PWP that was the strongest opposition, much before the Janata Party, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party made their presence felt in Maharashtra. He had won 11 times from the same constituency, Sangola, and worked for 53 years from 1962 in the Assembly. His feat can be equated with former DMK chief, the late M Karunanidhi. And, mind you, he did not quit PWP, a left-wing pre-independence Maharashtra-specific outfit, during his lifetime. Something very rare in modern politics. Meanwhile, some of his junior party colleagues buried the Marxist principles in the Arabian sea to build their business empires. Deshmukh would grudge the capitalism-induced greed in PWP, which has long lost its sheen in Raigad district where it had (the late) DB Patil, the former MLA and MP, whose life was a hallmark of simplicity and selflessness. Patil barred his children from entering politics. His followers now want the government to name Navi Mumbai Airport after him.

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Deshmukh, who sat mostly in the Opposition, had his share of defeats as well. He got beaten in 1972, but again won in a by-poll in 1974. In 1995, he lost by a slender margin of 192 votes. Deshmukh also served as a minister in Sharad Pawar’s 20-month government in 1978, and again in 1999 when PWP supported Vilasrao Deshmukh’s Congress-NCP alliance government. Deshmukh quit when his party pulled out support because an NCP legislator, who had caused PWP’s loss in local polls in Raigad district, was re-inducted in the cabinet. Despite pull-out and his ideological differences, Deshmukh did not lose the respect of members  of all parties in the House and the leaders outside. He never entered the well of the House to create a ruckus. His intervention would help the presiding officer to manage the 
House better. 

Veterans recall how Deshmukh got the late Indira Gandhi to make the employment guarantee scheme’s wages uniform for men and women. He, along with eminent PWP leaders, one prominent being Prof N D Patil, are still remembered for taking out an unprecedented bullock cart march to Mantralaya in 1966. In a farmers’ agitation in Islampur that the duo led, Patil’s close relative died in police firing but the protest continued. Deshmukh’s tenure had the other side as well. Despite so many battles outside and inside the legislature, not much changed on the ground for Deshmukh, who, sadly, had to repeat the same demands, such as mitigation of water scarcity. He himself confirmed water supply by tankers in the area, when he spoke about his intervention in providing water to the villages, during the election campaign. Young voters, who spoke to us, took it as Deshmukh’s failure in 50 years of his legislative stint.

In the 2019 elections, many voters told us that Deshmukh couldn’t do much for the people though he was elected for his honesty, sincerity and hard work. He has been a living example of textbook left ideology. However, his decision to choose a family member as party candidate had not gone down well with his critics because another party worker’s name was declared earlier. Yet the grandson fought well but lost by a slender margin of 768 votes to Sena’s Shahaji Patil, who had beaten Ganpatrao in 1995, but lost to the veteran many times before and after it.

In his retirement, Deshmukh’s tacit understanding with the Congress, and NCP which supported him, did not work. Shahaji had defected to the Sena from the Congress. What was the pact with the other parties that had been favouring a non-Maratha, Deshmukh, in a Maratha stronghold? Firstly, he did not really venture out to expand the party base beyond Sangola constituency, and did not interfere with the Congress-NCP’s politics. It worked like a barter between them. The BJP, which grew in Solapur district every election, did not focus much there, because in pre-poll alliance the Sena got this constituency. 

But with the BJP and Sena falling apart, Sangola would have a different scenario by next polls. Will PWP, which actually was just symbolic in Deshmukh’s success, retain the seat in 2024? Will the Deshmukh family overcome the allegations of nepotism? In 2019, the PWP had got only one MLA elected from Loha-Kandhar in Nanded, but the member has made up his mind to join the NCP which will field him in the next polls.

Whatever emerges in the coming years, the memories of Deshmukh’s walks in the south Mumbai lanes refusing lifts from legislator colleagues, his book covered MLA hostel room, his inexpensive attire including a couple of jackets he wore repeatedly during the winter session of Nagpur where he travelled only in a public transport bus between MLA hostel and Vidhan Bhavan, will remain indelible. He was the last of the breed.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore
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