Page:Sharad Joshi - Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage.pdf/281

 For eight years his SS colleague Sureshchandra Mhatre served as its principal. The college building was constructed by Shantilal Mutha, a well-known builder, as his donation. Dr Avinash Argade and Motilal Sankala, a local businessman, took practical responsibility for running the college. However, the local politicians kept creating obstacles in the running of the college for many years to come mainly because Joshi’s name was attached to it. Fortunately, over the years the difficulties were sorted out and the college is running well today. In light of all that, how would one explain failure of Joshi in politics? Many have attempted to answer that question. Shetkari Sanghatak, the mouthpiece of SS, in its issue of 6 March 1995 had appealed to its readers to suggest their answers. Though the search was in the aftermath of failure of Swatantra Bharat Paksh in elections, it was equally valid for its overall political aspirations. One of the several answers published, was given by Moreshwar Temurde, a long-time associate of Joshi and also an MLA. Under the heading “Elections have a different technique altogether” Temurde candidly wrote : 1. Our candidates suffered from extreme crunch of money and other resources. 2. They did not know the technique for fighting elections and to use that technique did not fit in their overall framework of principles. 3. People did not think that SBP was a strong enough alternative for Congress, which indulged in corruption and criminal ways and Shiv Sena-BJP alliance which, thrived on caste-based and communal propaganda. 4. Programme of our Party was purely economic. People were not convinced of its importance. They did not see any immediate benefit in that. 260

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage