Page:Sharad Joshi - Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage.pdf/276

 candidates for Maharashtra. Joshi’s closeness with Singh did not go down well with the local Janata Dal leaders who later caused Joshi much trouble. Eventually, National Front won the Parliamentary elections and on 2 December 1989 Singh took oath as the Prime Minister. Joshi was quite pleased with that outcome and planned a major mass meeting in Maharashtra for which he invited the new Prime Minister. To prepare for the meeting, Joshi enthusiastically swung into action. He was just recovering from a heart problem but he began working almost eighteen hours a day. Between 2 and 26 January 1990, Sanghatana had organized Phule-Ambedkar Thought Procession through 26 districts. It was organized as a prelude to the proposed mass meeting. That year happened to be the culmination of hundredth death anniversary celebration of Mahatma Phule and the hundredth birth anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The procession started from Katgun, place of birth of Phule. Joshi was there throughout the 26 days. He spoke in several meetings. The procession culminated on 28 January at Dr Ambedkar’s deekshabhumi in Nagpur. That was the place where Dr Ambedkar along with his followers had embraced Buddhism in October 1956. Prime Minister Singh personally flew in from Delhi for that meeting attended by three lakh farmers. While speaking there, Singh reiterated that he would give priority to the policies that would benefit farmers. He mentioned that he was fully convinced about the two main demands of SS – fair price for farm produce and freedom from past debts – and even offered to pitch in personally in the agitation for those demands. Around the same time, elections for the State Assembly took place. Sanghatana had fielded 37 candidates on the Janata Dal symbol. Five of them won : Advocate Moreshwar Temurde (Bhadravati, district Chandrapur), Advocate Wamanrao Chatap (Rajura, district Chandrapur), Dr Vasantrao Bonde (Hinganghat, On Political Front

Q

255