Newsroom

Back from US, Independent secures win over Shiv Sena

19th of Feb 2012

Balasaheb Darade spent five years in the US, doing his MS in electrical engineering and specialising in nanotechnology and also claims to have worked as a consultant for the Mars Rover project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

He then decided to return to India to work among the rural masses in his home district of Buldana in Vidarbha. Despite being an India Against Corruption (IAC) activist, he thought the best way to pursue his goal was by entering politics. So this month, 30-year-old Darade fought the Zilla Parishad election from Pangradole ZP constituency as an Independent candidate and won by a thumping margin of 4,000 votes, defeating his Shiv Sena rival Shankar Dole.

Campaigning tirelessly with the Anna cap on his and his supporters’ heads, Darade polled 7,533 votes while Dole polled 3,446. Incidentally, the constituency has been held for many terms by Sena.

“I had no money, muscle or liquor power. My sincerity was my strength. I reached every household during my campaign, gave no promises and criticised none, including my rivals,” Darade told The Sunday Express when asked about the secret of his success.

A bachelor, Darade studied electronics and telecommunications from Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College, Aurangabad, in 2005 and after working for a company in Pune for two years, he went to Cincinnati in the US to do his MS in nanotechnology. Influenced by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Art of Living, he returned to India in August last year to start a “rural and youth development” project called Shankara Rural Transformation with “12 basic parameters of development”.

“I met Gurudev in Cincinnati. He blessed me and asked me to return to India. He said I should enter politics,” says Darade. “I returned for good and decided to enter ZP fray because that is where rural development emanates from,” he says.

“I got huge response wherever I went. It was the toughest constituency where victory was not considered possible without liquor and money power. I proved it wrong. All you need is convincing power, art to connect to people and mental strength,” Darade says, adding, “It was a symbolic win that signifies that you can enter politics and achieve success in short time.”

So, would he say Anna Hazare was wrong in saying elections can’t be won without money and muscle power?“I will appeal to IAC to be part of election process or at least support people like me,” he says.

Darade’s Shankara project aims at solving rural problems of infrastructure, girl education, water and health facilities. “I will draw up a five-year plan for villages. I want to work for market for farmers and food processing. I feel there are good government policies too. I will ensure they reach proper beneficiaries. I am planning to build youth groups to work in villages.”