A latest compilation of grassroots anecdotes recounting the struggles and perseverance of the numerous employees of the erstwhile Jan Sangh and present-day Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, has made a lot information. The compilation titled “Kamal Pushp” paperwork the life tales of a number of unsung activists whose sense of dedication to a trigger was so deep and so robust that it sustained the motion by many years of winter until the early Nineties when the BJP emerged as a critical contender for energy throughout India. The compilation introduced again reminiscences of a collection of seven anecdotes penned by my late father Vempati Satya Suryanarayana (1942-2021) who was himself one amongst a number of such unsung activists who made a lifelong ideological dedication to the reason for this motion. These anecdotes initially penned in 2013 throughout the Mission272+ marketing campaign been revealed on the then India272.com volunteer marketing campaign portal. The anecdotes are reproduced beneath as written by him initially.
1. Three wall posters & an enormous killer
It was February 1967, the election season. The political local weather within the nation is nascent of fixing wind, trying past the ‘plough & two oxen’, the image of the Congress Party. Masses and center class are on the brink because of the fatigue of standing in never-ending queues to get a meagre 3 kg of PL-480 wheat (!), thrown at us by the USA. Rice in Northern India is a forgotten commodity. I recall these days with a shudder, as I had as soon as walked within the semi-forest space for about 20 km to get one kg of so-called damaged rice for my mom’s sake at Rs.35 in these days!
There was no Opposition price to speak about. But individuals had been keen to harm the rulers, even when solely a blade of grass of Opposition is there!
The scene is South Bombay! The struggle for Lok Sabha seat regarded like a butt of joke! One facet, an invincible big of Congress, who generates immense funds for the Party as treasurer, a robust Railway Minister and a frontrunner who all the time received from that posh locality of wealthy individuals.
S.Ok.Patil was by no means doubtful, and so was the general public at giant! For, the Opposition candidate occurred to be an urchin from far off Mangalore, who got here to Bombay a number of years again in the hunt for means to fill his hungry abdomen. Worked as a proof-reader in a press and a Shop assistant, he discovered solace within the philosophy of Ram Manohar Lohia’s Samyukta Socialist Party and in addition acquired elected to BMC from a slum locality the place his socialistic harangues labored properly.
The Taxi Drivers Union President finally readied himself to take head on the large.
So, it was S.Ok.Patil vs George Fernandes!
With no funds price to speak and with the Party Organization unseen anyplace and the followers being Shivji ki Barat, George discovered solely a ray of hope in individuals at giant, who may be keen!
The solely manner was to speak it out to the unknown, albeit, by potential means.
So, the epic Poster struggle began!
The first one blazed by South Bombay’s nook and nook flashing the unbelievable message: “YOU CAN DEFEAT PATIL”.
No doubt, when it turned the speak of the city, it appeared that the iron was getting scorching.
Then got here the second!: “IT IS PEOPLE VS PATIL”.
The iron now turning purple, the third one clinched the matter: “YOUR VOTE ONLY WILL DECIDE”.
The big was maimed with comfy margin!
2. Work at micro stage? See what it meant!
It was Jaora a serious Panchayat within the Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh. It was a rural Assembly constituency. The Assembly polls had been scheduled in February 1962. In the outgoing Assembly, the principle Opposition Party was Hindu Mahasabha which just about pale away, yielding house to the upcoming Bharatiya Jana Sangh. The BJS was planning to enter the fray in a considerable manner and make inroads into the fortresses of HMS & Congress.
But the principle hurdle was the supply of candidates. Most of the cadre are children and enthusiastic to check the waters. But in some areas, the cadre itself was skinny and weary to tackle the giants of the opposite facet. Jaora was one such place the place BJS was looking out frantically for a candidate. Not as a result of it was dreaming to win the seat even in its wildest goals. But it was an opportunity to popularize the Deepak image among the many people, which it couldn’t afford to lose. It was a VVIP seat and giving a symbolic struggle was a should.
The search finally ended up once they discovered a Parivar (RSS) Karyakartha reluctantly agreeing to bear the mantle after due approval from the guardian physique.
He was Dr.Laxmi Naraian Pandey.
Who was he? He was an RMP and in addition a homoeopathic physician. A easy persona, with an endearing attribute of profitable over the hearts of those that come into contact. His medical service was unfold over 30 to 40 villages in and round Jaora. He was recognized for his generosity and service-oriented method and preferred by every one that he served. Thus, there have been tons of of his loyalists within the villages.
When he was chosen by BJS, there have been hardly two months left earlier than the election and there was no celebration cadre definitely worth the identify. Laxminaraianji went on a cycle to each village and met his acquaintances and BJS sympathizers and sought their approval of his candidature. After a optimistic and enthusiastic response, booth-wise and village-level teams had been fashioned. As there have been no funds coming in, they mobilized small quantities and performed symbolic canvassing. Door to door method was the one viable technique and was religiously accomplished.
So, the struggle was between an enormous Kailashnath Katju, the reigning Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, who was additionally a detailed relative of Jawaharlal Nehru and a humble Swayamsevak Dr Laxminaraian. Nehru made it a degree to go to Jaora throughout the marketing campaign simply as a goodwill gesture to Katjuji, nevertheless it made no distinction. Katju misplaced to Pandey by a margin of precisely 1500 votes, an unbelievable lead to these Nehru days.
Note: Laxminaraian Pandey by no means misplaced a single election from that day until 2009, be it Assembly or Lok Sabha. He held ministerial posts within the State. He known as it a day in 2009 when he retired voluntarily.
3. Oh! Koi Mumbai ka Sethji Ayaahai Bori Bhar Paisa lekar!
Of course, we cannot blame them for getting such an impression. When you have a look at the particular person in information, who was quick and hefty with a kurta and dhoti and in his late fifties will get on the scene, anyone will get the identical feeling! Somebody within the group corrected the opposite “oh! He is not from Mumbai but from the South”.
“Then, what for he came all the way into this Hindi heartland? To contest and win”? The group laughed heartily. But the so-called Bori was nothing larger than a hand-carry bag and the paisa consisted in it had been, two extra units of dhotis and kurtas with a towel and serviette! The one-thousand-strong gathering was there attending the primary public assembly of JanaSangh throughout the 1967 General elections at Bhopal. The viewers consisted of well-educated younger engineers, younger technicians and artisans nearly all of them of their twenties. The venue was a buying centre within the Piplani space of HE(I)L (Later renamed as BHEL).
The assembly started with an introductory speech by a neighborhood chief after which the principle speaker, the candidate for Loksabha acquired up from his seat. His very first sentence in chaste Hindi of Madhya Pradesh fashion despatched loud and nice approving noises from the viewers. And, the listeners, when checked out their watches on the finish of the speech, it was one and a half hours over! More, the numbers have gone up and the gang was properly over 1500 who heard him speak about nationwide and worldwide points for the primary time.
While returning, one engineer mentioned “Oh! He is not a Seth but the Organizing Secretary of Jana Sangh for South India, but how he mastered Hindi in such an eloquent way? Another commented innocently, “if people hear his speeches, they would be bound to vote for him and he may even win”!
Winning? Hear! the seat was a stronghold of Congress. Out of 8 Assembly seats, Congress had 7 and the eighth one was a CPI seat, a Muslim MLA, twice received. And, who was the Congress candidate? The sitting MP, the glamorous Mrs Maimoona Sultana, a 34-year-old niece of Bhopal Nawab. She additionally occurred to be one of many Directors of HE (I) L, nominated by Govt. Remember, the Muslim voters had been about 40%. And you think about that Jagannatha Rao Joshi a non-local, a pauper-like, could scrape by?
Exactly he put this similar query to the younger cadre like us sitting round him. “But Bhai Saab, we want it to happen! “Then, boys, you have to go and organize yourselves silently at Booth level. And I am ready to address the public as many times as you desire, which may do the rest!” And the outcome was already in our pocket after we had been instructed one week earlier than the polling date by our pals from Kerala who had been ardent devotees of Marxism and EMS.
“Ok, for once we will vote Jagannatha Rao Joshi, despite our strong opposition to his Party’s philosophy, as we strongly feel that such sincere and honest social activists shall be in the Parliament irrespective of their Party labels.”
Jagannatha Raoji defeated the attractive and resourceful younger woman by a margin of 43,000 votes.
In the discount, BJS might additionally win two Assembly seats out of eight.
4. Galvanizing the cadre? Who is the candidate?!
Berasia, a rural Reserved Assembly seat was a part of the Bhopal Parliament constituency. It was a Congress stronghold and by no means entertained even a shadow of Opposition. The ruling celebration consultant loved the honour of a Ministerial publish and was very influential at that. The Jana Sangh candidate misplaced his deposit within the 1962 ballot getting a number of hundred votes!
Then got here 1967 elections, with Jagannatha Rao Joshi changing into the Jana sangh’s Parliamentary candidate.
Berasia turned a General seat. An intensive search started for a candidate for Assembly, an individual who might impress the agricultural youth as there was no celebration cadre as such. The theme at work was that the Lok sabha candidate ought to get an excellent proportion of votes in Berasia, to make sure a victory. A dedicated Sangh Swayamsevak, hard-working, with a frugal life-style, Laxmi Narayan Sharma occurred to be an elementary college instructor with a restricted supply of earnings. Can he be a candidate for the Assembly seat? In truth, what must be the standards? Substantial funds? Belong to the fitting caste? Good connections? The management of a robust native gang? Or TINA issue?
Sharma would draw a clean on all these counts.
But, those that mattered in taking choices had been very clear of their thoughts. None of the above elements would work in actuality, to ascertain a celebration with a distinction! All of them famous that L.N.Sharma had one USP. It was his persona, character and his skill to win over anyone with whom he comes into contact. This gentleman often used to go to villages in Berasia for quite a lot of years and in nearly all main villages, he had a band of children who adore him to the hilt.
The matter was settled and Sharma began his marketing campaign in proper earnest and with ease. The Party provided wall posters and pamphlets and locals managed sundry bills. The struggle was between prince and pauper actually for each Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha! And the paupers held the day! Laxminarayanji received with a majority of greater than 9500 votes for the Assembly and fetched the same lead for Jagannatha Raoji additionally.
The story doesn’t finish there. Sharma fought and received each election from 1967 to 2003. He turned a minister within the State and represented the Lok Sabha additionally.
Laxminarayan Sharma and Laxminaraian Pandey (of Jaora) stay these candidates, who had been by no means affected by both beneficial waves or opposed storms of their political careers, simply because they all the time remained with the individuals, whom they served with humility and sincerity.
5. Whom the VVVIP voted for? A traditional instance of sales space stage administration!
The New Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency consisted of not solely VVIP voters but additionally a considerable variety of refugees from Sindh, western Punjab, NW frontier, East Bengal, Kashmir and so on. The profitable candidate with a refugee background represented this seat each in 1952 and 1957.
The candidate for each occasions occurred to be Smt. Sucheta Kripalani, spouse of J.B.Kripalani, a veteran freedom fighter and erstwhile Congress President (early ‘50s). Suchetaji, who herself was a freedom fighter from East Bengal, received handsomely each occasions with Sindhi voters solidly behind her. In 1957, her opponent was Prof. Balraj Madhok of Jana Sangh, who was left far behind her within the race.
Then got here a time, when Nehru considered bringing a rank outsider as Chief Minister of U.P with a purpose to subdue the warring factions of each C.B.Gupta and Dr Sampurnaanand and he selected Suchetaji for that unenvious job! Incidentally, she not solely turned a CM of the biggest State but additionally, the first-ever girl Chief Minister within the nation. The inevitable bye-election for New Delhi Seat was performed in January 1961 and the Congress selected a robust native chief who was additionally a Sindhi refugee. The BJS had put up Balraj Madhok once more.
For Nehru, it was a really prestigious seat as the entire ruling class, each political and bureaucratic bigwigs stay there and in addition his Teen murti residence, Parliament Bhavan, Rashtrapathi Bhavan and so on. had been coated in that constituency. So, no effort must be spared in profitable again the seat. As standard, all election strategies and gimmicks had been employed to maintain the small opposition Party at bay.
While BJS caught to its distinctive technique of door-to-door canvassing, its star attraction occurred to be its 4-member Parliamentary celebration chief Atal Bihari Vajpayee! He used to handle the Central Secretariat staff throughout their half-hour lunch recess. Congress Party’s star marketing campaign leaders included Sucheta Kripalani who had the very best rapport with the voters and spared no efforts to get the seat to Congress kitty.
The bye-election was over and Balraj Madhok received this most prestigious seat with comfy margin of 10,000 votes.
Here comes probably the most attention-grabbing a part of the episode – The voting was by poll papers and the counting was accomplished booth-wise. There was no jumbling of votes, which was launched a lot later. Of course, with the current digital voting machine, we are actually again to booth-wise counting. Rashtrapathi Bhavan had one Polling Booth solely for its residents. In this Booth, the Janasangh candidate polled 235 votes and the Congress acquired 67. One harmless soul had a doubt which couldn’t be answered until now. ‘Whom the President of India might have voted for?’
6. Periakulam! Saffron flag on the shoulders of Dravidian Champions!
Periakulam is a city within the Theni Dist. Tamilnadu, adjoining to Madurai and is understood for its well-known mango fruits of uncommon selection. But this ‘mango city’s identify turned well-known for another cause in 1982. Periakulam is a Parliamentary constituency with a number of hundred villages and small cities overlaying its space.
In 1980 General elections, Indira Gandhi was raiding a excessive wave after the autumn of Janatha Govt. and the DMK candidate Mr.Natarajan received this seat in opposition to AIADMK with a margin of about 16000 votes, in alliance with the Congress. The different alliance of AIADMK, CPM, and CPI and so on. couldn’t lower a lot ice with individuals and ended up profitable a paltry 2 seats out 39 in Tamilnadu.
The Indira wave was nonetheless at its peak when a bye-election was necessitated due demise of a DMK member. The bye-election was held in mid-1982 and the ruling Party put up a kith of the deceased chief as its candidate who was anticipated to romp house comfortably. But the bye-election was received by AIADMK by a whopping margin of 80,000 votes over the DMK. The Congress, which had a daydream of constructing it by itself, ended up dropping its deposit, with a hopeless 28900 votes in its package.
How such a metamorphosis befell inside a short while of 18 months? There lies a narrative of kinds!
It was on nineteenth Feb’1981, in Tirunelvelli district.
It was on 14th June 1981, in Ramnad district.
It was on twenty fifth July 1981, in Ramanathapuram district.
It was on twenty ninth July 1981, and twelfth&thirteenth August 1981, in Tanjavur district.
It was on 1st March 1982, in Kanyakumari district.
It was on eighth June 1982 in Tirunelvelli district once more!
It went on and on for a one and half years! Yes, be it Meenakshipuram, Attiyyuttur, Kooriyoor, Mannargudi, Gudiyattam, Mandaikkadu, or Puliangudi the identical ominous sample of seizing the Harijan and weaker sections of the Hindu neighborhood and forcibly changing them to Islam by unethical means.
The Hindu backlash was unprecedented! Scores of Sadhus, Sanyasis and Hindu intellectuals got here out of their self-made preserves and landed amongst the lots awakening them to the approaching hazard to their religion, tradition, custom and to their locations of worship.
In the center of this turmoil, the bye-election got here and the leaders of the Hindu neighborhood gave a clarion to the voters to vote solely the one that condemns mass conversions and commits brazenly to the safety and preservation of the standard Hindu religion.
The spectacular scene of 1000’s of Saffron flags with the ‘OM’ image flying excessive and excessive on automobiles, housetops, and public locations within the constituency made it appears to be like like a saffron sea. The Dravidian political Parties vied with one another to personal the individuals’s trigger and the AIADMK candidate, a loyal Hindu himself brazenly got here in opposition to conversions and himself vouched to face for the Hindu legacy.
P.S. The Congress, which all the time makes appeasement its coverage, put up a minority candidate in opposition to the Hindu wave and ended up with 28900 votes!
7. Want to win 272? Then hear the story of these two!
These two constituencies are facet by facet inside a district. Both had been strongholds of Congress until the appearance of TDP. Since 1984, these have modified the arms of the 2 events, however no different celebration might come anyplace nearer to them. Even within the anti-congress local weather of 1996, TDP and Congress shared these two seats profitable one every.
The BJP candidates acquired mere 12,750 and 10,770 votes respectively (that are lower than 1% of votes) and promptly misplaced their deposits which was not a shock within the state AP.
Then got here the elections of 1998 (inside two years). There was no wave in anyone’s favour. Also, it was no one’s case that another events have immediately change into robust within the State the place the two-party syndromes absolutely manifest.
However, a miracle did occur. These two seats (out of the 4 within the district), immediately threw a surprise of wonders by electing BJP candidates. In a stretch of a complete of 30 parliament seats in that area, BJP misplaced miserably within the different 28 however received these two, Kakinada & Rajahmundry by majorities of 68,000 and 10,000 respectively in probably the most fierce electoral battle with the highly effective stalwarts of TDP and Congress.
How might it occur? How the political novices of BJP might change into big killers? There lies an attention-grabbing story.
The district East Godavari is the center of the rice bowl of the nation. It had highly effective and wealthy caste leaders politically rooted deeply, aside from a considerable proportion of Dalit Christians. The lengthy coastal belt has a lot of hamlets of fishermen communities, which turned the looking floor for the conversions.
To put it in easy phrases, it isn’t a conducive ambiance for a smooth BJP to penetrate into the properly protected political empires of TDP and Congress.
Then, what occurred between 1996 and 1998? It was a very non-political prevalence, a devastating hurricane, adopted by continuous heavy downpours and heavy winds for per week, which devastated your complete division of three districts with flooding of Godavari waters.
East Godavari was the worst affected district with the overall destruction of poor peoples’ dwellings, washing off of standing crops prepared for harvesting and ruining of huge coconut fields and so on. For about ten days, there was no authorities current there, nor any management to come back ahead to see what was occurring! There was no water to drink, no electrical energy, and no functioning hospitals.
On the opposite facet, there have been tons of of volunteers, docs and daring younger males risking their lives in gushing waters and saving 1000’s of lives in these darkest days, coming from nowhere. Their serving to arms present succour to every and all people with none discrimination. The Sangh-led reduction set-up labored like a well-oiled machine with excellent cohesion in wiping out the tears of 1000’s of households for nearly a yr each with quick time reduction and very long time rehabilitation.
In the minds of the individuals of the Konaseema belt, the Sangh has change into a family phrase and its selfless service is gratefully remembered by the coastal individuals for a very long time. They exhibited their gratitude in their very own manner when the event got here within the type of the Loksabha elections!
(The prologue of this text has been written by Shashi Shekhar and the article that particulars the 7 grassroots anecdotes has been written by his late father, Vempati Satya Suryanarayana (1942-2021), written in 2013)
