Solapur does a jig as ‘Dagdu’ peon becomes CM

‘‘Shinde joined the court sometime around 1957 as a peon. He was just 16 then. Two years later, he became a shipai,’’ Jhunjarrao recalls. Though five years senior to him, Jhunjarrao had fast formed a friendship with the boy peon.

‘‘He (Shinde) was very ambitious and hard working. He finished his matriculation and was then made a court-clerk. He was then fetching Rs 65 as salary,’’ the retired peon recalls.

‘‘Till he passed his matriculation, he was Dagdu for all of us. After he started practising in Mumbai, he changed his name to Sushilkumar. But I’m sure all his early certificates and papers must be in the name of Dagdu Shinde,’’ says Jhunjarrao.

Shinde’s association with the district and sessions court in Solapur spans over a decade. First as a boy peon, then a shipai, a clerk, and later as a qualified lawyer who went on to become the state’s Law Minister.

The CM’s former colleagues feel it is his ability to bear all adversities with a smile that has made him rise to such heights. ‘‘He was an ever-smiling young man. He was liked by all — right from the most strict judge to many regulars at the court,’’ Jhunjarrao says.

Kashinath Pise, an account clerk at Solapur court since 1958, remembers Shinde for his ‘‘European’’ look. ‘‘I used to see him carrying fat files to and from my section,’’ he said, adding that he lost touch with Shinde after the district court was shifted to Warads’ Palace.

Another former colleague, Genu Sawant, recalls an incident when a senior clerk slapped Shinde over a trivial affair. Shinde refused to make an issue out of it, he said.

According to sources, then District Judge V.N. Palekar had brought Shinde to the court, who was working as a ward boy at Wadia Hospital. Most of the judges, whom Shinde served, are no more. But a few senior advocates still remember him. Advocate A.G. Kumbhakoni recalls loaning his car to Shinde when the latter went to give his first driving test. ‘‘That must be sometime in 1966,’’ he says.