Comrade Hemant Waghere is a militant and studious activist of the CPI(M) for the last 25 years since 1990. He is a resident of Kathipada village in Surgana tehsil and hails from the Konkana Adivasi tribe. Born on June 1, 1972, he studied up to the First Year MA class. He has been a member of the CPI(M) Nashik district committee from 2005 and of the Nashik district secretariat since 2012. He has been elected Secretary of the Party’s Surgana tehsil committee twice since 2008. The Surgana tehsil has by far the largest Party membership among all tehsils in Maharashtra. Earlier, he was elected to the Kathipada Gram Panchayat for many years and was the village Sarpanch for five years. In 1987 he began work in the SFI. From 1990 to 2000, he was active in the DYFI and was elected Nashik district secretary and Maharashtra state joint secretary of the DYFI. From 2001, he began work in the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS). After working sincerely for over a decade, in 2013 he was elected as the Working President of the AIKS Nashik District Committee and Joint Secretary of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha. In the AIKS national conference at Cuddalore in July 2013, he was elected to the AIKS National Council (AIKC). Comrade Hemant Waghere has worked in the Party and the Kisan Sabha under the guidance of veteran leader Comrade Narendra Malusare and also Comrades K K Pawar and J P Gavit. Today the membership of the Nashik District Kisan Sabha is over 80,000 - the highest in Maharashtra. In 2006, the 31st national conference of the AIKS was successfully held in Nashik. Among the thousands of AIKS activists from Maharashtra who collectively worked to make this conference a success, Hemant Waghere’s contribution was significant. Similarly, Surgana tehsil and its surrounding areas are one of the bastions of the CPI(M) not only in Nashik district but also in the whole of Maharashtra. For this achievement also, thousands of Party activists have worked with dedication and Hemant Waghere is prominent among them. While leading the various struggles of the people on several issues, he has established a reputation as a politically mature and studious leader. He has taken several effective classes for Party activists all over Nashik district. Comrade Hemant Waghere has always been in the forefront of all the struggles of the peasantry, agricultural workers, working class, middle class as well as Adivasis, Dalits and all other sections of the people. He has been in the leadership of several successful struggles launched by the CPI(M) and the AIKS in Nashik district on issues like the Forest Rights Act, doorstep ration scheme, old age pensions, load-shedding of power, education, employment, health, irrigation and so on.