Gurudas told me that he would prefer to be in the Congress till his last breath and not call quits whatever may happe
Gurudas joined the Congress party as a youth leader in 1972 as a student leader of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) in Podar College in Mumbai. He became the Mumbai President of NSUI in 1978. The Congress party split during the emergency. However, Gurudas was a staunch Gandhi family loyalist and he stood steadfast with the Congress party. He rose very fast in the rank and file of the party and became the Maharashtra President of the Youth Congress in 1984.
After Indira Gandhi’s demise, Rajiv Gandhi chose many young turks from the party to fight elections from Mumbai. Gurudas Kamat was one of them. His association with Sonia Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi date back to that era. He was also very close to Sharad Pawar when he was in the Congress. In fact when Pawar was the CM in Maharashtra it was Gurudas who was his man Friday when it came to maintaining a rapport with the leadership in Delhi. It was quite natural for Pawar in 1999 to extend an open invitation to join the Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) and offer him a Rajya Sabha MP seat. However, Gurudas being the strong Congressman that he was politely refused it.
He was also instrumental in getting me and many like me in the party. I belong to Dadar area which was always a pocket borough of the Shiv Sena. Everyone in my family including my brother was close to the party. However, I chose to join the Congress party in 1978. Our chawl was undergoing redevelopment and some local Sena leaders fleeced us. My father passed away in that shock. It was in those trying times that I joined the Congress party. Gurudas was a natural organiser and commanded atleast a follower base of 10 workers in every ward of the 227 wards in the city of Mumbai.
In 1979, after Emergency when Indira Gandhi was arrested, Gurudas with all of us took to the streets and ensured that the Mumbai Bandh was successful in honour of our leader. It is notable that it is Shivsena who was seen as a past master in organizing successful bandhs. However, Gurudas through his battery of workers ensured that the Mumbai Bandh was successful.
In 2003, a year before the NDA government in the centre under Vajpayee got defeated Gurudas organised a successful rally of Sonia Gandhi on the historic Shivaji Park ground in Mumbai. It was his prowess as an effective party organiser that ensured that the rally was a success and the party was also triumphant in the city.
Following the Congress debacle in 2014, Gurudas offered to resign from all the party posts and chose to be an active worker of the party. Having served with three generations of the party there was no question of leaving the party.
During the last BMC polls there were strong overtures from the central leadership of the BJP to join the party and get a ministership at the centre in return. However, Gurudas told me that he would prefer to be in the Congress till his last breath and not call quits whatever may happen.
( Rajan Bhosle is the General Secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. Views are personal and as told to Ketan Vaidya)
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 "Gurudas Kamat")
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