Kamat, who died Wednesday after a heart attack in New Delhi, climbed the ranks within the party to remain an asset for Mumbai Congress for more than 30 years.
Mumbai: A leader who rose through the ranks, built a strong team of karyakartas (party workers) and was a committed Congressman, but one who often took impulsive decisions and remained miffed with his party towards the end — that’s how many in the Maharashtra Congress remember Gurudas Kamat, a senior party leader and a former minster.
Kamat died Wednesday morning due to a heart attack at a hospital in New Delhi. He was 63 and is survived by his wife Maharookh and son Dr. Sunil Kamat.
Kamat, known to be close to the Gandhi family, climbed the ranks within the Congress from first being a general secretary, and later president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress to eventually being a Minister of State in the United Progressive Alliance government and a five-time Member of Parliament from Mumbai.
The entire Congress brass expressed shock at his sudden death Wednesday. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi visited the hospital to pay her last respects, while Congress president Rahul Gandhi who is out of the country tweeted saying Kamat’s death is a “massive blow to the Congress family.”
The sudden passing away of senior leader Gurudas Kamat ji, is a massive blow to the Congress family. Gurudas ji helped build the Congress party in Mumbai & was greatly respected & admired by all. My condolences to his family in their time of grief. May his soul rest in peace.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 22, 2018
Kamat’s rise within Congress
An advocate by profession, Kamat’s political career started during his student days. In 1972, the leader joined the Nation Students Union of India while at Mumbai’s R.A. Podar College of Commerce and Economics and in 1976 he became the president of its Mumbai unit. He soon came to be associated with the Youth Congress. In 1980, he was appointed the general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress, and in 1984, its president. In 1987, he became president of the All India Youth Congress when Rajiv Gandhi was the president of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the highest decision-making body of the party.
Rajiv Gandhi is said to have handpicked Kamat to contest the Lok Sabha election from the Mumbai North East constituency in 1984 over several other senior aspirants, raising many eyebrows in the Mumbai Congress and Maharashtra Congress ranks. Kamat, then 30, comfortably won the election beating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart Pramod Mahajan by a margin of more than 90,000 votes.
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Congress leaders remember Kamat as a soft aggressive and ambitious leader who built a strong party base in Mumbai to take on the administrative strength of the Shiv Sena in the city. He became the Mumbai Congress president in 2003, a position he held till 2008.
In 2009, Kamat won his fifth term to the Lok Sabha from the Mumbai North West constituency and was a Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, IT and Communication from 2009 to 2011. He was also a member of the AICC and the general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu.
Anant Gadgil, senior Congress leader from Maharashtra, said, “Kamat’s greatest strength was that he could build a strong base of his karyakartas. He would always be working among his karyakartas. He was stern when needed with them, but was never arrogant.”
Every Sunday, he would sit at his office in DN Nagar, Andheri, to meet his followers and address their issues. He continued to do this even after he sent a letter to the party leadership resigning from all positions in 2017.
Leaders admire Kamat for making his people, his karyakartas, his greatest strength, but most concede that his greatest weakness was his tendency to act impulsively in moments of anger or hurt against the party.
Fallout with Congress leaders
Congress leaders remember Kamat’s first emphatic and visible registration of disappointment within the party to be in 2011 when the leader quit the cabinet, irked at being given a seemingly low-profile portfolio of drinking water and sanitation. Moreover, the leader was retained as a Minister of State even as he was expecting a cabinet rank.
“He kept saying the resignation was for personal reasons, but his disappointment was the main factor. Although he was told that the drinking water and sanitation ministry will be sanctioned a good budget with some showpiece projects, he took it as a snub after having handled home affairs. That was the beginning of his disappointment within the party,” said a Maharashtra Congress leader who did not wish to be named.
In 2014, amid intense infighting and factionalism within the Mumbai Congress and a strong ‘Narendra Modi’ wave, Kamat lost the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency to Shiv Sena’s Gajanan Kirtikar by a heavy margin of nearly 1.83 lakh votes.
The infighting within the Mumbai Congress unit worsened after the party appointed Sanjay Nirupam, a former Shiv Sena leader, as the Mumbai president.
A Congress leader who visited Kamat about three months ago at his Chembur house said, “We talked a lot about everything that is happening within the party. He had been very unhappy with the party for the past 4-5 years. The rise of Sanjay Nirupam too irked him. Many in the Congress, including Gurudasji, who have risen within the party ranks over years feel original Congressmen need to be included more within the party’s leadership structure.”
In 2016, a year before the Mumbai civic polls, Kamat resigned from the AICC citing personal grounds. In a statement, Kamat said, “Retiring from politics does not mean retiring from social work. I will continue to be available for people minus the party tag for whatever help or issues to be taken up with different agencies.” He added he had the “highest respect and regard for Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi.”
Sonia Gandhi, however, refused to accept his resignation and mollycoddled him with an assurance that he will have more say in the party’s affairs. Congress sources said Kamat felt sidelined under Nirupam’s leadership. Nirupam on the other hand would always complain about how former MPs from Mumbai were not supporting his efforts to strengthen the party in the city.
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Following Congress’ crushing defeat in the 2017 Mumbai civic polls and an intense spat with Nirupam, Kamat once again resigned from all positions within the party in April of that year. In a statement, he said that he had since long been feeling the need to take a backseat to give others an opportunity.
On Wednesday, Nirupam expressed his condolences calling Kamat’s demise an “irreplaceable loss” to the party. “We have lost a leader who had excellent knowledge of Mumbai’s urban problems and one who used to always strive for the city’s benefit. Congress has lost a leader who was connected with party workers at the grassroots,” he said.
The last that most Congress leaders heard from Kamat was a message last night wishing them well on Eid.
I think Murli Deora was Bombay’s last Congress Mayor. The city is a cosmopolitan space, which the party needs to recover, with the help of younger leaders.