Meet Ganpatrao Deshmukh, 82, a 10-time MLA from Sangole in western Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi is the only other serving politician in India to have made it to a state assembly so many times.
Maharashtra was born in 1960, and its first assembly polls took place in 1962.
Deshmukh, representing the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), won in 1962, and except for two blemishes — in 1972 and 1995 — kept on winning. After his defeat in 1972, he came back strongly within a year by winning the Sangole by-election of 1973. In 1995, he lost out by just by 192 votes. “I was overconfident then, and paid for it,” he admitted to DNA.
He had worked with YB Chavan, and will be working a second time with Ashok Chavan.
In between, he has dealt with all the other chief ministers of the state. Asked who was the best chief minister, he refused to draw comparisons. “All of them had their own strengths and weaknesses. So, it will not be fair to compare them. However, I think the governments elected in 1978 and 1999 had been the most efficient till date,” he said. Incidentally, Deshmukh held cabinet berths in both the governments.
Deshmukh, known as an orator and an effective MLA, felt that it was time for him to take his last bow. “This is my 10th term. I think this will be my last in the assembly.”When asked about the change he witnessed over all these years in the assembly, he said, “Gone are the days when effective and fruitful discussions used to take place on various issues and subjects in the assembly.
Now, the members believe only in disruptions and chaos. These are easy ways to get publicity. It hurts me a lot. Also, members of the ruling parties get their problems treated on a priority basis. It makes the opposition MLAs struggle to get their issues resolved,” he said.
What pains him most is the ever increasing corruption in politics. “Corruption has always been there in politics. But now, it hasgone to wanton extremes. Corruption is choking politics,” he said.
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