In fact to him goes the distinction of initiating the unity of non-Congress parties which ultimately culminated into Janata Dal which ousted Indira Gandhi in 1977. Another politician who also contested on anti-Congress platform was Sharad Yadav. Sharad Yadav was elected to the Lok Sabha with the support of Jana Sangh and Socialist Party.

Gaur began his career as a textile mill worker. His family shifted from Uttar Pradesh to Bhopal. As a mill worker he was associated with the communist controlled textile workers union. Shakir Ali Khan, who was known as Sher-E-Bhopal was the supreme leader of the Union. Gaur holds Shakir Ali as a highly respected leader. As a mill worker he joined the RSS and then joined Jana Sangh, obtained law degree and started legal practice.

Recalling his past he says- 'I used to get 50 paise per day as wages in the mill, which was raised to Re 1 when I became a clerk'.

He had to face defeat in his first electoral engagement in 1972. He was vanquished by Mohanlal Asthana, a leader of the state government employees union, with a margin of 16,000 votes. 'I filed an election petition at the instance of some Congressmen and Asthana's election was set aside on the grounds of misuse of government machinery', he said.

Gaur's chance came in 1974, when the Govindpura seat fell vacant and a bye-election was called. He contested as an Independent candidate with Bow and Arrow as his symbol and won, defeating Bhai Ratan Kumar, a joint candidate of the Congress and the Communist Party by 17,000 votes. 'My total expenses on campaigning was not more than Rs. 15,000. And that was also arranged by the party. He recalls at that time; 'Shivraj Singh Chauhan was one of my workers'.

And thereafter, as they say, he never looked back. In 1977, he contested from Bhopal (South) constituency, defeating Ladli Sharan Sinha. From 1980 onwards, he confined himself to Govindpura, defeating his rivals in 1985, 1990, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013, always with huge margin.

He entered the council of Ministers for the first time in the Sunderlal Patwa government (1989) and was the leader of opposition during Digvijay Singh regime.

After BJP came to power in 2003, he was named the chief minister in August 2004, after the resignation of Uma Bharati. He resigned in December 2005.

Gaur's feat is unparalleled in the sense that there is hardly any other leader in the state-besides Jyotiraditya Scindia-who has never lost any election. Digvijay Singh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Sunderlal Patwa, Kamalnath — all have tasted defeat at one time or the other. In fact, few in the country can match his record.

What is the secret of Gaur's unusual durability? It can be described in five words, 'Keeping in touch with people'. He ensures that every single day he visits some or the other area in his constituency or some part of Bhopal.

He meets people and solves their problems. It was due to the goodwill he has earned over the years that his daughter-in-law Krishna Gaur was elected as the Mayor of Bhopal. He knows hundreds of party workers by their first names.

And he stands by them in their hour of need. The doors of his house are always open for party workers and his admirers.

He lifts his phone himself. One need not grapple with private secretaries and assistants to talk to him.

'I was always a fighter. I fought to get the problems of my area solved. I fought for securing jobs for the locals in the BHEL. When in opposition, I stoutly opposed the wrong decisions of the government', he says.

Gaur says that he built a network by making polling agents his formal representative. 'I issued cards to them'.

And at every polling booth, I used to distribute five postcards so that anyone with a problem could write to me', he says.

That network still survives. And that was probably why he never cared to invite any top leader to his constituency to campaign for him and neither did he bank on 'waves'.

'I win on my own strength', he claims.

Talking of the changes that have come about in politics over the last four decades, Gaur says that earlier people used to join politics to serve; now they do it for making money.

As regards the Vidhan Sabha, he says that in the times gone by, MLAs raised problems of their constituencies in the House but now they seem to be only talking about corruption. He said that he has learnt a lot from Arjun Singh, as far as legislative politics goes. 'Arjun Singh used to listen to me very attentively', he recalls.

According to Gaur, Arjun Singh used to sit in the Vidhan Sabha through the Question Hour regularly. 'But Digvijay Singh started the practice of giving the Question Hour a skip and that practice continues till date', he said.

'Neither that old Vidhan Sabha remains nor those old MLAs. Now MLAs travel in luxury cars. Everything seems to be revolving around money'.

And unlike most politicians-in the evening of their life, an octogenarian Gaur never makes the common-enough emotional pitch of this-is-my-last-election to garner votes. He is sure that he will always be around. And his voters believe him.

His advice to greenhorn MLAs: 'Instead of celebrating your birthdays and holding huge religious programmes, concentrate on solving the problems of the people. And you will never lose the polls'.

Obviously, he doesn't believe in sparing anyone. (IPA Service)