'I Should Have Won 1.25 Lakh Votes'

'There is a difference between a politician and leader.'
'A politician will have his pound of flesh first and do everything else later.'
'A leader will sacrifice everything to help people.'

It has been a busy time for IIT-Bombay alumnus Sanjay Meshram since winning the Umred constituency in Nagpur district 12 days ago. Meshram is among the handful of Congress candidates to survive the Mahayuti tsunami that demolished the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra.

A successful entrepreneur with long years of social service, Meshram, 65, entered electoral politics in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, but tasted electoral success only after winning the Umred seat as an MLA.

"It is due to 15 years of hard work among the people. They have carried me on their shoulder," he tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih.

What are your primary goals as a first time MLA?

My constituency is compressed from three sides -- the Gosikhurd Reservoir Project, the Karhandla National Forest, the WCL coal mines.

This has resulted in resettlement of a large number of people, but many civil amenities have yet not been given to them properly. Therefore, this is my first priority.

These people once owned land, but are now working as farm labourers. This is very painful. I want to start some schemes for them that will help in setting up small businesses or a unit where young people can get jobs.

From IIT-Bombay to politics -- how did you set course on this journey, especially because not many from the IITs/IIMs venture into politics?

I love taking up challenges. After completing engineering from IIT-Bombay, I went for a job interview to Maruti.

I was 23-24. During the interview, they asked me if I was given a choice which department would I join?

I said, marketing.

They laughed because at that time people would stand in queue and play black money to buy the Maruti car.

'Mr Meshram, do you think Maruti needs marketing?' they asked. I told them marketing was not only about putting a car in the market, but also developing service units, gauging competition etc.

I got the job placed on the shop floor as a management trainee.

After three months, I protested, and told them I had opted for marketing, not production.

They said it was part of my orientation and 3 months became 6. I knew I would not get out of the rut, so I packed my bags and came home.

My parents scolded me for having left the job, but I told them I have my degree to fall back on.

I started the business of manufacturing plastic bags in Nagpur. I employed 100 families and supplied the bags to Raymond, Digjam, Vimal.

Since I was always interested in engineering marketing, I then started marketing cranes and special heavy equipment.

Post-liberalisation, India was importing heavy machinery from abroad [which needed specialised lubricants]. Since my specialisation was application engineering, I started marketing lubricants and built a good business.

How did politics happen?

My inclination was social service. In 1992, I joined the Rotary club and became president of Nagpur North in 2002.

In 2012-2013, I was governor of Rotary International district 3030 which stretched from Nashik to Gondia.

I realised the limitations of working in a social organisation where you can do projects up to 5 crores. If you want to raise your level of service you have to get into politics.

Congressman Mukul Wasnik -- the MP from Ramtek [2009 Lok Sabha] -- asked me to help in the Umred constituency where he had got less votes.

I already had a business setup in this constituency and started working here. I did social work like medical camps etc.

In 2014, the person who had contested from this constituency joined the BJP. Mukulji said why don't you contest from Umred since there was a vacancy.

I entered politics, but there was a rebellion against me within the party. I lost badly.

There is a difference between a politician and leader. A politician will have his pound of flesh first and do everything else later.

A leader will sacrifice everything to help people.

A leader will create more leaders, but a politician will prevent anyone else to come up.

The moment a politican comes to power, he will circle around the constituency like a snake and bite anyone who throws a challenge.

The sole aim of politics is to keep power.

But I realised to win you have to work among the karyakartas from the ground up, at every level.

I had a very strong organisation behind me. I got my chance when the seat fell vacant and my candidature came up.

By that time people had already seen my work for 15 years and thought the injustice done to me had to be redressed.

I did not fight my election, people did. They carried me on their shoulders and even in this tsunami when all Congress seats were defeated in the area, I was elected by 14,000 votes.

The Congress won 5 out of 10 seats in Vidarbha in the Lok Sabha election. Why did it perform so badly just five months later?

We are still unable to understand what really happened. A game has been played with the EVMs. You can't tamper the EVMs, but you can change the names.

The machine does not understand names, it understands numbers. If you put a number which belongs to the BJP instead of the Congress, it will show that the BJP has got those numbers [instead of the Congress].

The janta of Maharashtra was against these people and yet they have won. They have manipulated the results.

A leader of my district [former state minister] Sunil Kedar lost, and did not lead in any of the booths during counting.

This is impossible because he is the leader in Nagpur district controlling the panchayat samiti and zila parishad. Such a thing can never happen.

We want that VVPAT should also be counted and matched with the count on the EVM, but they are not ready to do that.

The Congress is planning a jan andolan against the EVM. We will go with the message to the people that to save democracy elections should be conducted by ballot paper.

Our objective is not to gain power, but ensure fair and free elections so that democracy survives.

We will save democracy.

Public opinion is being created that people will become slaves of the government and the true will of the voters will not be reflected in the government if we continue like this.

But the same EVM recorded a win for you.

There is a particular level to which the EVM can be set. They can swing 5% to 10% of the vote, but not if you are winning by 15%, 25%, 30%.

I believe I should have won 1.25 lakh votes, but I got 85,000. They could not manage that limit because people wholeheartedly voted for me.

In the last 10, 12 years all democratic institutions have been captured by the BJP. Constitutional institutions are being dismantled and taken control of.

Why were elections in Maharashtra postponed by a month? They talk about one nation one election, but are unable to conduct election in three states at one time? Why?

They did this to buy time because their position after the Lok Sabha election was vulnerable. They needed time to disburse the amount allocated for the Laadki Behna scheme and do inaugurations.

Has the Congress lost the support of the Vidarbha farmers who had stood with the party?

Not at all! The basic policy of this government is to destroy the agriculture sector and give it to the corporates. Soyabean is being sold at Rs 3,000, Rs 3,500, so where will the farmer go? The input cost has risen so much because they have put 18% GST on all agriculture inputs.

A farmer buys material at 18% but when he sells he does not get a refund of 18%. If you really want agriculture to survive, you should use the cooperative sector to do the purchasing and selling.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com