Protesting Pothole-riddled Roads: Congress candidate campaigns barefoot

Rane plans to continue barefoot till the end of the campaign. She said she took the decision to walk sans her footwear for her entire campaign as a mark of protest against the bad roads, which are poorly maintained by the Shiv Sena-BJP-led civic body. “There are a large number of religious people in this ward who walk barefoot to temples every morning and it’s an arduous journey for them. Since the footpaths have uneven paver blocks, most of them walk on the road and the crater-like potholes hurt their feet. I want to feel their pain not just in the case of bad roads but all other civic issues as well,” she said.

She added that in the past few days, she suffered injuries from stepping on broken glass and rough stones. Forty-year-old Rane, who has been with the party for the last 15 years and is contesting for the first time, said residents of the area also suffer from issues of water supply and insufficient fogging, which leads to a high number of dengue cases.

Rane is currently the block president of the Congress and also a former secretary of the Mumbai wing of the All India Human Rights Association for three years between 2007 and 2010.