For 58 yrs, Reds rule the roost
RED RAGE IN TALASARI
The mainstream political parties have given up hopes of coming to power in the small Talasari tehsil in the north-west Maharashtra’s Palghar district.
For the past 58 years, the Talasari area is the dominion of the CPI(M), which has been ruling the roost without a break since the first local election was held here in 1962. Like the Gaulish Village, which withstood the might of the rampaging Roman Empire, Talasari and surroundings hold out comfortably against the modernday ‘political invaders’ in the form of national parties like the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Shiv Sena, local outfits, et al.
Though the Red Flag symbolising Communism was lowered long back in Russia and many other Communist countries, it continues to flutter brightly, boldly and cheerfully in Talasari. This week, CPI(M) again bagged the Talasari Tehsil Panchayat Samiti with Nandkumar Hadal elected chairperson and Rajesh Kharpade elected unopposed as Vice-Chairperson.
In the January 2020 election, this Panchayat Samiti (PS) has all 10 tribal members -- who dominate in the district -- and the CPI(M) scored 80 per cent to vanquish the BJP and NCP in 8 of the 10 PS, besides 4 of the 5 Zilla Parishad seats in Talasari Tehsil, 145 kms north of Mumbai. "It is because of our strong grassroots level work since 1940s among the tribals and farmers to tackle their problems in the region. People have reposed their faith in us repeatedly,” local CPI(M) MLA from Dahanu, Vinod Bhiva Nikole told IANS.
A humble vada paav-sellerturned-lawmaker, Nikole, 43, was among the 50,000 farmers who walked the entire 200-km historic Kisan Long March in March 2018, which had rattled the BJP-led powers-that-be at the Centre and in the state. All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) president Ashok Dhawale said like many other farmers' movements of the 1940s, Palghar farmers had joined it in a big way, besides Nashik, Kerala, Telangana, West Bengal and Tripura. "That legacy has been nurtured well in all these regions. With changing times and needs, we take up contemporary issues, for instance, the massive opposition among tribals to the Bullet Train Project in Palghar and the Farmers Rights Act implementation," Dhawale told IANS.
In Palghar, CPI(M) bagged six Zila Parishad and 12 PS seats in 2020 elections -- improving its tally by three seats over 2015. Even Nashik's Surgana Tehsil Panchayat Samiti is a matter of pride for the CPI(M) where it is in power for 35 years nonstop and its senior leader and farmers' rights activist, Jiva Pandu Gavit has been elected MLA for seven terms.