Ramesh Wanjale- The man with a golden heart!

Alongwith Maharashtra, it was a great shock to me when I heard the news of MNS MLA Ramesh Wanjle’s death. Wanjale, the man famously known as the ‘Gold Man’, and the only Pune MLA elected from Khadakwasala constituency in 2009, passed away in Jehangir Hospital at 10.05 pm on 10th June 2011 following a cardiac arrest.

Wanjale was a colourful personality – his physique and the gold that he always used to wear made him stand out. He was fascinated with gold and used to wear thick gold chains and bracelets totally weighing 800 grams and worth Rs 12 lakh. Essentially a farmer, who became wealthy due to rising land prices in and around the city, Wanjale had represented Pune Zilla Parishad as a Congressman and had been politically active for the past 15 years in Ahire village and the Haveli Panchayat Samiti. He was also the president of Jai Ganesh Education Society.

On 15th Aug 2010, Wanjale came for some election campaign to my hometown Jamkhed. I called him on mobile and invited for a cup of tea. I thought that he might not come as he was too busy but still after the campaign meet he said we will go to your home. More than 500 party workers were following him and whole main road where I stay became crowded. He entered my home and touched my mother’s feet. He said, Rahul your mother and my mother are the Madhubala’s of olden time. He added, Aai, I look like the villain Spot Nana but I am a very spiritual person. The same day midnight, while I was coming back from Ashti after dinner with my friends; we saw Beed police van was chasing some people. I asked them what happened and coincidently by that time Wanjale was on his return way to Pune. He saw us and offered his help to cops. He gave battery to the cops from his car and left for Pune, without expecting anything… neither his battery nor a thanks!

Wanjale was like a coconut, looked tough from outside but very soft from inside. After I met him, I understood that you can’t judge a person from his outside personality or physical appearance. Wanjale was a classic example of this. Last year he gave speech in Pune on the occasion of noted builder D S Kulkarni’s birthday function. He said that I am a fan of DSK & came here although I have not been invited. DSK invited me on dias because I am MLA. In fact, we don’t know each other personally!! His speech was superb and included portions of Sant Tukaram’s Abhangas. He was very transparent and straight forward person. Man with innocent mind indeed.

The MLA was a household name in his Khadakwasla constituency from where he won the assembly election in 2009. In fact, Wanjale shot to fame from 2009. He was suspended along with three other MNS MLAs for causing a ruckus in the assembly after Samajwadi party MLA Abu Azmi took the oath in Hindi instead of Marathi. Wanjale had rushed to the well of the house and lifted the podium to disrupt the proceedings. The suspension was later revoked. Wanjale, a wrestler, was also an eloquent speaker and often quoted writings of Sant Dnyanewshwar and Sant Tukaram in his speeches. Besides a good political leader he was KIrtankar. In his speeches he used to say that if Abu Azami is from Azamgad, then I am also from Sinhgad!!.

I saw whenever he speaks about MNS President Raj Thackeray he mentioned him like Rajsaheb…Thackeray Saheb. His love and affection for Raj was evident in each of his reference. He took more than 25000 old people for Haridwar, Kashi, Tuljapur, Pandharpur darshan several times with his own expenses. Besides, he had also taken Muslim people to Ajmer for darshan. It shows the spiritual personality behind him. He also visited Europe, Thailand, Bangkok, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Mauritius, Switzerland and England.

Recently I called him for some work and he told me to meet personally. Unfortunately I couldn’t go and the meet remained incomplete… forever.