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Dream finally comes true for old Jan Sangh leaders of Maharashtra

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They are all in their seventies. When they started working for a political outfit called Jan Sangh, they had never dreamt that one day the right wing party would sit on the treasury benches and it would have its own chief minister.

Be it 70-year-old Bhagwanbhai Boladra from Pune, who was made in-charge of the vehicles department by late Rambhau Mhalgi during the 1978 post-emergency Janata Party government, or 74-year-old Omkardas Jainarayan Rathi from Jalgaon Jamod in Buldhana district, or 69-year-old five-time MLA Haribhau Bagade and 75-year-old Dr Gunwant Sarode from Raver, who destroyed the Congress bastion in Raver by becoming MLA once and Lok Sabha MP twice, all were of the opinion that Devendra Fadnavis and his team would transform Maharashtra.

Boladra, who runs a cloth shop, said: "We used to paint walls with limestone powder and campaign in rural areas on our cycles at a time when no one knew about Jan Sangh."

He said they however had a deep feeling that times would change and their party would come to power one day. "But I was never sure that that would happen in my lifetime. That's the reason why I was so elated to see the oath-taking ceremony; it was some kind of a dream fulfilled," he added.

Cotton trader Omkardas Rathi, who too has been working for the party since its Jan Sangh days, said he was happy that BJP had come out of the alliance with Shiv Sena. He said it was because of that the BJP could swear in its own chief minister. "I have come all the way from Buldhana, as coming to Wankhede stadium today was like undertaking a teerthasthaan (pilgrimage)."

Haribhau Bagade, the five-time MLA, said in olden days they used to campaign travelling on cycles and used to have bhakaris (packed from home) along with tea they were offered on the campaign trail. He said he used to work in those days when due to fear of Congress terror, not many from opposition parties would think of campaigning.

He said: "People used to come for meetings and small rallies on bullock-carts. There were no TVs or the social media then. We had to reach out to every voter physically. Today's success is on account of the foundation we laid."

Dr Gunawant Sarode said he had never been an RSS man, but after listening to Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Pune during his student days in 1958, he had started working for Jan Sangh. Vajpayee had then said: "Ab Hindu Maar Nahi Khayenge (from now on Hindus would not be only at the receiving end)." He also said he had never thought Jan Sangh would come to power, but kept raising the voice of Hindus in the assembly.

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