After ill Kalavati files papers,daughter says she’ll withdraw

Tiwari conceded Kalavati was under pressure to withdraw. “Yesterday evening she was given the Marathi translation of a letter by Sulabh International chief Bindeshwari Pathak advising her to stay away from politics. She was perturbed. Her sons-in-law are also pressuring her to withdraw. They seem to be doing it at the behest of the Congress. And in the last few days she has been mobbed for media interviews. All this has taken its toll. Yesterday,she was admitted to hospital where her ECG indicated a problem. She was taken to Yavatmal and now she is in her Jalka village,” Tiwari said.

“But I have told her she is free to withdraw,” he added.

Daughter Anita said she would just that. “My mother is tense. All of us in the family are against her contesting elections. Some people have given her wrong ideas about it and she has been misled. Now,she has realised that it’s not in our interest and we have decided to withdraw,” Anita said.

Tiwari is hardly disturbed. “We have the other woman,mentally more firm,as an alternative. We wanted to give a message with Kalavati since hers is a known name. But we don’t want her to be stressed. We took her to a physician in Yavatmal who said she can file the form. So,we did that. I told her relatives I won’t say a word henceforth. You decide,” he said.

Tiwari attributed Kalavati’s condition to Pathak’s letter. He said the Marathi translation was “delivered yesterday” but Anita said the letter arrived days earlier. “We read it a few days later and realised that it made sense.” Shyam Pandharipande,co-ordinator of the Sulabh project for Jalka village says he delivered her the letter days ago. “We gave no Marathi translation yesterday.”

Tiwari continues to hope Kalavati will contest,and win. “Slowly,opinion is building around her name in Maregaon (a tahsil near Jalka). With support from SBP,we can make her an MLA.”