Uttamrao Patil

In 1954, Nanasaheb contested election to Maharashtra Legislative Council and won by sheer hard work of party workers. Thus party got its first legislator in Maharashtra. The first congratulatory telegram message was from Swatantryaveer Savarkar.

In 1955, he resigned from the legislature on party orders on formation of the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement.

In 1956, Nanasaheb was amongst leaders of Goa liberation movement. He organized volunteer batches to be sent in Goa. Later, the Maharashtra government granted Freedom Fighter status to all participants. A signed letter by Nanasaheb was sufficient to grant this status to an applicant. Nanasaheb himself never accepted any awards, perks or pension for his contributions.

In 1957, first time after Jan Sangh's formation, Parliament elections were held. Nanasaheb contested from Dhule Loksabha and won handsomely. Nanasaheb became the first member of Parliament from Jan Sangh from Maharashtra. Only four MPs from Jan Sangh were elected from the whole of India - Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Premji Asar and Shivdin Droher were the other three. Atalji shared a room in MP hostel with Nanasaheb during his five-year term.

Some of the key issues Nanasaheb focused on during his tenure were long term national economic agenda, food shortages in country, and sincere and prompt action against China on the border issue. When PM Jawaharlal Nehru proposed co-op farming in India based on a Russian model, Nanasaheb opposed this in Parliament. He formed a strong farmer lobby of MPs including Chaudhari Charansing, A G Ranga, and Purushottam Patel, and opposition became nationwide. He propagated that "Land is farmer's mother and such soviet ideas are alien to this motherland". PM Nehru had to withdraw the proposal and Nanasaheb became the farmers' leader.

In 1957, he started a Marathi weekly publication, Sudarshan. It was a platform for the oppressed and an efficient tool against government apathy. He had to undergo many court cases for his articles but nothing could stop him from his mission. This weekly continued almost for 40 years.

For a brief period of 1960 to 1962, He was National Vice President of Jan Sangh.

In 1966, Nanasaheb contested legislative council election from Graduate constituency. After some days, all opposition members of the council formed a National Democratic Alliance and Nanasaheb was chosen as its leader. He became Leader of Opposition in the legislative council and had ministerial status and perks. His office became a meeting point for opposition resulting in a very effective opposition assault on government on important issues. For a common man from rural area, his office and residence was open to visit and seek help. The formation of regional agriculture universities and realisation of the Employment Assurance Scheme (precursor of MNREGA) were his contributions in this period. He continued to be Leader of Opposition until 1978.

During Indira Gandhi's national internal emergency, most of the opposition leaders (including those of Jan Sangh) were put behind the bars. Some went underground. Nanasaheb was not behind bars owing to the fact that he was hospitalized after a major road accident. He had suffered a severe injury with 36 fractures and neuromuscular ailments. He used this time to the party's advantage, and notwithstanding all his physical limitations, he worked as the party's national executive secretary as well as president for some time. He extensively connected with jailed party workers' families and arranged for their paroles in sickness, family death or family marriages. He also participated in the formation of the Janata Party and its initial setup (Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the State of Emergency). As a result, the party formation was complete and the party was ready when elections were declared in 1977.

After formation of Janata Party, he was unanimously elected as President of Maharashtra Pradesh. In 1977, he contested a Lok Sabha election from Dhule constituency. There was a Janata wave and Congress was uprooted all over India (Indira and Sanjay Gandhi suffered a personal defeat as MP candidates). Candidates like George Fernandes won even from jail. But surprisingly Nanasaheb lost the election to a novice congress candidate in Dhule. This was the only defeat of the Janata Party on Mumbai Agra highway constituencies. Keeping his personal defeat aside, Nanasaheb consented to a victory procession in Dhule to celebrate the nationwide Janata Party victory.

Swearing in as Maharashtra Revenue Minister

In 1978, the elections to Maharashtra assembly were declared. Nanasaheb was still a council legislator but he decided to contest and was given a party ticket from Parola–Bhadgaon constituency. He was seen as a chief ministerial candidate in case of the party win. As a party president, he had to tour the whole Maharashtra state and had very little time to campaign in his own constituency. The young party workers took this campaign responsibility and he won the election by a handsome majority. Janata party was the largest single party but congress and S-congress came together and managed to form a government. Nanasaheb became the Leader of Opposition in the assembly.

There was soon a deflection in the congress coalition government and Sharad Pawar broke away from the Congress party to form a coalition government with the Janata Party in 1978.

Though Janata Party had more than thrice the legislature members than Sharad Pawar's fragment, still Pawar became the Chief Minister of the new Progressive Democratic Alliance. Nanasaheb was given a revenue and rehabilitation portfolio. He occupied 'Varsha' bungalow as his official residence. This government was short-lived and summarily dismissed in February 1980, following Indira Gandhi's return to power in Delhi.

During this short tenure, Nanasaheb took many important decisions including the renaming of Dr Ambedkar Marathwada university and giving to the tribal people (Adivasis) ownership of the land which they had cultivated for generations.

In 1980, Janata Party disintegrated fully. The old Jan Sangh again reunited as the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai with the lotus as its symbol. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was chosen as the National President and Nanasaheb was chosen as the President of Maharashtra BJP. In the same year, Nanasaheb declared his retirement from active electoral politics and vowed to work for the party only.

In 1984, he handed over the presidency to the young Gopinath Munde and declared that in future neither would he contest elections nor would he hold party positions. He will be just 'a party worker' henceforth. He was 63 years old at the time.

Nanasaheb with Atalji

Despite his resolution of not participating in active politics, Nanasaheb contested the Lok Sabha elections once more, for the final time. The reason for contesting was an emotional one. Party was expecting a good parliamentary result and a probable government formation in Delhi. The party counted on winning every favourable seat to achieve its goal. Atal Bihari Vajpayee personally insisted that Nanasaheb should contest the upcoming elections. Nanasaheb was not physically ready for the task, but following party dictum he contested from Erandol constituency. Despite 10 years of absence from electoral politics, he was still the people's leader and won easily. Ninth Lok Sabha did not complete its five-year tenure and was dissolved in 1991. Nanasaheb felt very much relieved. He never again contested.