ON the heels of the victory of the massive CPI(M)-led march in Palghar district from January 19-21, 2026, another huge march led by the CPI(M) and the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) was held in Nashik district from January 25-27, 2026. It began from Nashik and marched over 75 km in the direction of Mumbai up to Khardi in Thane district. This was preceded by road blockades in various tehsils of Nashik district from January 17, and then the marchers walked from these tehsils to reach Nashik city by January 24 night to begin the march next day.

After three days, on January 27, the BJP-led state government invited a delegation of the march for talks with five key ministers and concerned top officials, followed by a meeting with the chief minister himself. Like the Palghar march, it was only after concrete assurances were given by the government in writing that the Nashik march was suspended, marking yet another victory for the peasantry and the people.      

Issues of Struggle

Like the Palghar march, the Nashik march was also around 50,000-strong and created a great impact. Both actions were preceded by intensive and extensive preparations in both districts. Both received widespread nationwide publicity in large sections of the mainstream and social media. Like the Palghar struggle, the Nashik struggle was based on two main sets of issues.   

The first set of issues was centred around the non-implementation of numerous earlier assurances around the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and PESA, other issues concerning land, irrigation schemes, filling of thousands of vacancies in Zilla Parishad schools, and so on. The other set of issues centred around the pro-corporate policies of the BJP-led central and state governments, like the smart meter scheme, undermining of MGNREGA and rural employment, land grab by the government-corporate nexus, the Labour Codes, and so on.

The three-day march was led by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and AIKS National President Dr Ashok Dhawale, former CPI(M) Central Committee member and former AIKS State President J P Gavit, ex-MLA, CPI(M) Central Committee member, State Secretary and AIKS National Joint Secretary Dr Ajit Nawale, CPI(M) State Secretariat member and Nashik District Secretary Indrajit Gavit, CPI(M) State Committee member and AIKS State President Umesh Deshmukh, CPI(M)-AIKS leaders from Nashik district Subhash Choudhari, Irfan Shaikh, Ramesh Choudhari, Kisan Gujar, Sunil Malusare, Savliram Pawar, Bhika Rathod, Vasant Bagul, Hiraman Gavit, Rambhau Gahala, Devidas Wagh, Ramdas Pawar and others.

CPI(M) State Secretariat member and CITU National Vice President Dr D L Karad was in the march on the first day. CPI(M) Central Committee member and CITU State Secretary Vinod Nikole, MLA, CPI(M) State Secretariat member and AIKS State Vice President Kiran Gahala, CPI(M)-AIKS leaders from Thane-Palghar and Ahilyanagar districts Radka Kalangda, Chandrakant Ghorkhana, Namdev Bhangre, Eknath Mengal and others joined on the third day.  

Republic Day Celebrated on National Highway

On January 26, Republic Day, with great discipline and infectious enthusiasm, the National Flag was ceremoniously tied high on to the leading truck on the Nashik-Mumbai National Highway. Those who paid floral tributes and gave respectful salute to the Tiranga were Dr Ashok Dhawale, J P Gavit, ex-MLA, Dr Ajit Nawale, Umesh Deshmukh, Sunil Malusare, Savliram Pawar, Bhika Rathod, Uttam Kadu and others. 

They were joined by tens of thousands of marchers, who included women and men, old and young, from all tehsils of Nashik district. Immediately after that, the National Anthem was played, with the huge mass standing at attention and giving a mass salute. It was a truly moving occasion to see the poorest and most exploited Adivasi and other peasants of the country celebrating Republic Day on a highway in the midst of a massive struggle. The resilience shown by the poor Adivasi peasant women and men was truly admirable. 

The contribution of Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar to the framing of the Constitution was recalled, homage was paid to the martyrs of the freedom struggle and of all later struggles of the toiling people, and the defence of the fundamental Constitutional values of sovereignty, democracy, secularism and socialism was underlined. On January 27, the march commenced its descent of the picturesque Kasara Ghat; it left Nashik district and entered Thane district.

Demands Won, Chief Minister Takes Guarantee

The state government, nervous about the widespread publicity that the March was getting both in mainstream and social media, invited a delegation for talks at the state government headquarters Mantralaya in Mumbai on January 27. The delegation comprised Dr Ashok Dhawale, J P Gavit, ex-MLA, Dr Ajit Nawale, Vinod Nikole, MLA, Umesh Deshmukh, Subhash Choudhari, Indrajit Gavit, Irfan Shaikh, Kiran Gahala, Sunil Malusare, Bhika Rathod, Devidas Wagh, Ramdas Pawar, Radka Kalangda, Chandrakant Ghorkhana and Eknath Mengal.

The CPI(M)-AIKS delegation held discussions on various issues for over two hours with five Ministers - Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan, Tribal Development Minister Ashok Uike, Forest Minister Ganesh Naik, School Education Minister Dada Bhuse, along with the Chief Secretary and concerned top officials.

Following this, the delegation met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at Varsha, the Chief Minister's residence. The following demands were accepted during this meeting:

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave full assurance and a personal guarantee regarding the implementation of all the accepted demands. He also assured continuous follow-up at the ministerial level to ensure that there are no shortcomings in implementation.

The most important gain of this march was that it was agreed to re-examine the claims of all claimants in the state under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The discrepancy between the amount of land given to the peasant family under FRA and the land under actual cultivation has increased due to incorrect opinions from the Forest Department, resulting in injustice to thousands of farmers. Thousands of legitimate claims have been rejected without a proper reason. To rectify this injustice, it was decided in the meeting to re-examine all the FRA claims in each district. For this purpose, committees of officers will be appointed in each district under the chairmanship of the Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) to examine each forest rights case. 

This entire exercise will be completed within the next three months, and justice will be given to the forest landholders. To expedite this process, an implementation committee including ministers has been constituted. 

During the meeting, it was announced that a crop survey (peek pahani) would be conducted on forest lands, and all government schemes would be extended to forest landholders. The Tribal Development Minister issued orders in this regard.

The AIKS insisted that paddy cultivated by farmers on forest land, as well as millets like Varai, Nagli, and Sawa, along with tribal crops, strawberries, and Bal Hirda fruits, should be purchased at fair prices. A demand was also made that the bonus given to paddy producers should be extended to forest landholders as well. E-Crop survey (peek pahani) is necessary for forest landholders to avail themselves of these and all other government schemes. It was agreed that E-Crop surveys would be conducted for forest landholders to ensure that they receive the benefits of all these schemes.

Regarding the regularization of lands cultivated by farmers on temple trust lands (Devasthan Lands), the process of drafting a law has been initiated due to the continuous agitation and follow-up by the AIKS, and a draft of this law has been recently provided to the AIKS. While some aspects of this draft are commendable, the AIKS highlighted the need for some radical changes. It was decided that a meeting of the AIKS delegation would be organised soon under the chairmanship of Revenue Minister to address and resolve the shortcomings in the draft. The Revenue Minister also showed a positive attitude towards regularising the 'Warkas' lands in Thane and Palghar districts, and the demand to complete the legal process and provide justice to those cultivating these lands was accepted.

The rainwater falling in the tribal areas of Maharashtra flows into the sea through seven west-flowing rivers. The AIKS demanded that this water should be made available to the local people and to the drought-prone areas of Maharashtra. A concrete action plan was decided upon to construct various types of check dams to retain this water locally and make it available to the local population. A detailed plan will be prepared at the Nashik District Collector level, and the proposals submitted by the AIKS will be seriously considered in this entire process. An announcement was also made to expedite the plan to divert the water flowing into the sea towards the east and provide it to the drought-prone areas, including the Marathwada region.

The court has ordered that the vacant posts under PESA (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act) be filled within the 50 per cent limit. It was agreed that this would be implemented immediately, and PESA recruitment would be carried out in the tribal areas.

The AIKS strongly demanded that farmers be provided with electricity during the day. It was decided that information would be immediately collected regarding the districts where electricity is provided at night for agricultural irrigation, and a decision would be made to provide electricity to farmers during the day in those areas.

School midday meal workers receive extremely meagre remuneration. Since the promise to increase their remuneration has not yet been fulfilled, the delegation pressed the matter. It was announced that a decision would be taken to provide justice to the midday meal workers.

The delegation demanded that school buildings and classrooms be repaired and teachers be recruited where necessary, so that students in rural, tribal, and remote areas have access to all educational facilities. The School Education Minister assured that concrete action would be taken in this regard.

The delegation requested the Chief Minister that the Nashik-Pune high-speed railway line, which passes through Akole, should be constructed according to the previous survey. The Chief Minister assured that a solution would be found by reconsidering various proposals to overcome the technical difficulties regarding the alteration of the railway line.

Concerted Statewide Follow-Up of Victories

With these two great back-to-back victories of the Palghar march and the Nashik march, the CPI(M) and AIKS have decided to concertedly follow up statewide on the demands won. Large activists’ meetings are being held in Nashik, Thane-Palghar, Ahilyanagar, and other districts.

An AIKS-organised state-level felicitation programme of the leading activists in both the above Palghar and Nashik marches, as well as in the struggles for loan waiver in Vidarbha, struggles against flood damage and for a fair sugarcane price in Marathwada, against the proposed Shaktipeeth Highway in Western Maharashtra, etc. has been organised in Mumbai on February 17, along with an extended AIKS state council meeting for concrete planning of the movement and the organisation for the future. AIKS leaders Jitendra Choudhary, ex-MP and ex-Minister, and Amra Ram, MP, will be the chief guests at the February 17 felicitation function.