How Maharashtra's political activists multi-task during Lok Sabha poll season

Known as the ‘pir, bawarchi, bhisti and khar’ of politics, they are the crucial link between people and parties

MUMBAI: Elections without a karyakarta is like ‘Hamlet’ without the Prince of Denmark. The faceless man keeps the poll juggernaut moving evenly on the path of democracy. “In India the political activist is a tenuous link between people and the larger political system,” said Ramesh Oza, Gujarati writer and political commentator, a former karyakarta of the Jayaprakash Narayan-led Chhatra Yuva Sangharsha Vahini of the 1970s.

Left to right: Shashank Kamat, Shiv Sena (UBT), Hiren Joshi, Indian National Congress, Reedan Fernando, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), and Aarti Pugaonkar, BJP.

Come elections and the dyed-in-the-wool karyakarta comes into his own. “A good karyakarta would never stand on formalities. He dives straight into the water,” said Anil Parab, senior Shiv Sena (UBT) functionary and former minister. Multi-tasking and long working hours go to make a hands-on political worker, Parab added.

“There are too many things to do—preparing the daily statement of expenditure to be submitted to the election commission; necessary permissions from the civic authorities and the police; mapping out routes for the candidate’s ‘padayatras’; mass contact drive and so forth,” said Parag Chavan, the Shiv Sena’s (UBT) deputy vibhag pramukh for the Sewri assembly pocket borough, which is part of the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency.

Chavan belongs to the Sena’s time-tested karyakarta tradition honed to near perfection by Sthaneeya Lokadhikar Samiti, the party’s flagship trade union. The Sena draws great comfort from the fact that while party seniors defected to the Shinde Sena, the 2022 rebellion hardly affected its rank and file—the ubiquitous karyakarta.

This explains why ideology still triggers the imagination of many karyakartas. Faith in the party’s political agenda or charismatic leader prompts a karyakarta to join the bandwagon. They don’t expect money. A tiny allowance is distributed to party workers from time to time, though, said political observers.

Meanwhile, persuading voters to reach the nearest polling booth amidst punishing heat wave will be a tough task. Panha and Bisleri bottles are much in demand. Also, vada paav and the good old ‘cutting chai’ continues to draw political workers to wayside tapris across Mumbai. Crumpled kurta-pyjama of the hazy 1970s have given way to jeans and T-shirt, while the humble cycle has been replaced by a sleek motorbike.

“The post-2010 political worker is techno-savvy and watches news channels. He can argue with a senior police official on legal matters,” said Nayan Kadam, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena general secretary.

“A sizeable chunk of the urban youth is enamoured of politics as it empowers them in the Maximum City. Second, election is fun—making new friends and bonding with the local citizenry, much back slapping and high fives,” said political commentator Vyankatesh Iyer.

Alap Phadke, a senior manager in a four-star hotel in south Mumbai, keeps in touch with friends in politics. “They give me an insider’s view of the power play at local level. I find it fascinating, almost like an OTT script,” said Phadke.

As election enters the last phase the leader-karyakarta bond deepens. A rough-and-ready politician, Kadam was pleasantly surprised on seeing a suave Goyal laughing heartily and patting karyakartas on the back during a recent padayatra at Gorai. While Gaikwad strikes an immediate rapport with female party activists, lawyer-turned-politician Ujjwal Nikam is learning the ropes with help from BJP workers.

Party workers are quick to mint a new name for the candidate: Nikam has been re-christened as ‘Vakil Babu’, while Sanjay Dina Patil, the Mahayuti nominee for Mumbai north east, is ‘aapla bhau’ (our brother). Mihir Kotecha, the BJP candidate in the same constituency, is just ‘bhai’. Gaikwad is ‘didi’ to her followers.

Most political workers of the Sena extract are known by monickers such as Pakya, Vinya and, this is slightly unparliamentary, ‘gotya’.

On the flip side, ambition and avarice keep lurking in the wings. “A clever karyakarta makes good money during elections by tapping the right sources. Netas promptly rope them in as backroom boys,” Iyer added. Soon, the Smart Alecs are seen moving around in Mercs, flaunting heavy gold chains and rings.

The loyalists soldier on mastering new work skills. Technology has altered the scope and style of poll campaigns. Most poll offices have a social media team, and mobiles keep buzzing all through the day.

“Earlier, a karyakarta would have to write out voters’ slips. Now everything is digitised. Most permissions can be obtained online,” said Sujay Patki, a senior Thane BJP functionary.

Women’s participation in poll management has, happily, gone up in recent years. “We do not lag behind our male counterparts in any way. In fact, women work with greater discipline and planning—and sensitivity,” said Nirmala Belsare, a Congress sympathiser.

Ulka Vishwasrao, a Ruia college graduate and senior BJP functionary in charge of the Rajapur tehsil, shuttles between Mumbai and the sea-swept constituency thrice a week, striking a balance between family and her appointment with coastal villages many of which lack mobile connectivity.

Often described good humouredly as the ‘pir, bawarchi, bhisti and khar’ of politics, karyakartas cannot be shooed away as humble drawers of water and hewers of woods. “They are the Zubin Mehtas of the great Indian poll orchestra. Much depends on their planning and time management skills and organisational ability. They have to know a bit of everything—law, politics, media, psychology and sociology,” said Vivek Surve, a political analyst.

Shashank Kamat, Shiv Sena (UBT)

Kamat looks every inch a sportsman, which he has been all his life. The ace kho kho-kabaddi player joined at age 17 Prabodhan, a centre for sports and culture in Goregaon, Shiv Sena strategist Subhash Desai’s political bastion. Desai groomed him for both organisational and Sena responsibilities. The 2004 Lok Sabha election marked Kamat’s debut as a political activist. Two decades later he is geared up for the Mumbai north-west slugfest as poll coordinator, a tough challenge as Sena (UBT)’s Amol Kirtikar is locked in a straight combat with Ravindra Waikar of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.

Kamat begins his day at nine in the morning. “No fixed time to go home,” he said, and profusely thanks wife Ketki, a graduate in Indian classical music, for not striking a discordant note. “There are gentle taunts, though,” he chuckled.

Hiren Joshi, Indian National Congress

A commerce graduate, Joshi firmly refrained from joining the Gujarati mercantile community to raise a toast to the BJP a decade ago. Instead, he chose the Congress party, thanks to Sanjay Nirupam, who was back then the Mumbai North Congress MP. “I liked the Congress ideology which espouses pluralism and harmony. Rajivji (Gandhi) has been my icon,” said Joshi. Nirupam put Joshi in charge of the social media team. “It was then a novel concept and everyone was trying to explore the digital media,” he explained.

Joshi headed the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee’s social media team between 2014 and 2018. “I worked round the clock—covering the Congress party’s social and political events, writing photo captions, uploading and sending the Facebook, Instagram link to other karyakartas. It was an exciting job,” he said and flaunted his Motorla G-4 with a tinge of pride.

Joshi currently monitors the online poll campaign of Bhushan Patil, the Congress candidate from Mumbai North. He also trains young party workers in online technology. Not that Joshi is unaware of the tussle between Patil and union minister Piyush Goyal, the BJP candidate. “But to perform under tough circumstances is a challenge and I love challenges,” he signed off.

Reedan Fernando, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde)

Fernando seems like a red herring in the Shiv Sena -- a Tamil Nadu migrant who flaunts a Portuguese name, speaks good Marathi and heads one of the Dharavi shakhas of ‘aapli’ Shiv Sena. “The Dharavi residents speak pidgin Marathi,” he said, unperturbed by his heavy Tamil accent. Fernando owes his rise in the Sena to Rahul Shewale, the Sena MP who joined Eknath Shinde in the wake of the 2022 mutiny.

However, the vantage Son-of-the-Soil agenda of Matoshree, which catapulted Balasaheb Thackeray to the state’s political centre-stage in the 1970s, hardly worries Fernando. “All those who live in Mumbai are proud inheritors of the Marathi culture,” is the 40-something entrepreneur’s pat answer.

Fernando’s immediate priority is to see that Dharavi residents trek to the polling centre. “The Bihari and Tamil migrants are lured by vacation packages offered by tourist companies. Also, the Dharavi voters need to be trained in democratic traditions. Many can’t distinguish between the duties of a local corporator and MP,” he said.

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Aarati Pugaonkar, BJP

Aarati Pugaonkar, who teaches logistics and supply chain management in a city college, is the general secretary of the BJP’s Mumbai South-Central district, and is one of the party’s spokespersons as well. As Mumbai coordinator of the much-vaunted ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao’ crusade Pugaonkar has had the opportunity to interact with women and girls from the city’s weaker section. She got her five-year-old daughter admitted to a BMC school recently.

Pugaonkar belongs to a family of BJP loyalists. Her father was a corporator, while her brother is a senior party functionary. Having spent her childhood in Chinchpokli, a textile mill pocket borough dotted with chawls, Pugaonkar is aware of the city’s smouldering socio-economic sub-text.

The BJP has deputed Pugaonkar to Mumbai South from where Yamini Jadhav, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) candidate, is contesting against Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT). She coordinates with Jadhav’s team to organise door-to-door campaign and padayatras. “Modiji is the BJP candidate in every Lok Sabha constituency across the country,” she said.

A law graduate and post-graduate in arts, Pugaonkar is glad that more women are joining politics, especially those with good academic background. “The day is not too far when male members of the household will hang up their boots and women will reign the political scene,” she laughed.