The Hindu : From peon to Vice-Presidential candidate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 21, 2002

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From peon to Vice-Presidential candidate

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI July 20. If the NDA candidate for the Vice-Presidential polls, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, started his career as a police constable in Rajasthan, his rival, Sushil Kumar Shinde, started off as a peon in a magistrate's court in Solapur, Maharashtra.

But Mr. Shinde also had a stint as a police Sub-Inspector in Mumbai's Local Intelligence Bureau (LIB), which he quit to become a politician.

Mr. Shinde spent his early childhood assisting his mother, who was a domestic worker.

After receiving his secondary school certificate, he became a court peon and nursed the ambition of becoming a lawyer.

But he joined the police and his assignment at the LIB was to "cover the Congress". That was when his fortunes turned.

Mr. Shinde came into contact with Sharad Pawar, who was then a key man in the Youth Congress. After some time, he quit his job and joined the party. In the 1974 by-elections, he was offered a Congress ticket.

Of the 10 seats the party contested, it won only in Karmala where Mr. Shinde romped home. Later, he was inducted into the V.P. Naik Ministry as a junior Minister. There was no turning back. He went on to become the State Finance Minister and presented a record nine budgets in a row.

Soft-spoken, Mr. Shinde seldom took a controversial stand but performed his assigned role with assiduous skill.

The two fell out in the early 1990s, when Mr. Shinde ran a dissident campaign against Mr. Pawar, then Chief Minister, at the instance of Rajiv Gandhi.

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