Beed sarpanch murder: Munde claims being targeted, says can’t be cornered like Abhimanyu, ‘I’m Arjun’
Munde was on Saturday denied the guardian ministership of Beed — a post which he held for two-and-a half years during the previous Eknath Shinde government.
On being denied the post, Munde said that he himself had suggested Ajit Pawar to take up the post (Express Photo)
Maharashtra Minister and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde, who is under attack from the opposition and leaders of ruling Mahayuti allies, on Sunday claimed that he was being deliberately targeted.
Invoking Mahabharata, Munde said that he cannot be cornered like Abhimanyu as he was Arjun.
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The NCP leader was speaking in Shirdi where he had come to attend the party’s two-day conclave. Munde had skipped the first day of the conclave and had been avoiding he media.
Munde was on Saturday denied the guardian ministership of Beed — a post which he held for two-and-a half years during the previous Eknath Shinde government. NCP chief and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will oversee the post.
On being denied the post, Munde said that he himself had suggested Ajit Pawar to take up the post.
”Some people were working overtime to target me… No just in Beed, but in entire Marathwada communal harmony has been affected. Our party follows the path on the path Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar,” Munde said in Shirdi.
Munde said nobody will support the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh. “In Beed district, sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh was brutally murdered. No one will support the murder. Those who committed the murder should be hanged. Because of those five-six accused, a media trial of Beed is underway. Beed has turned into Bihar. Who is responsible for this ? One village and one district is being defamed,” he said.
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The minister said he was hurt by the fact that some leaders, including of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, were attacking him.
“No matter how much they try to corner me, it will be of no use. Because I am not Abhimanyu, I am Arjun. Some leaders from the NCP too are providing false information to Ajitdada, who is standing by me in these difficult times,” Munde claimed.
Munde said his party has stood by him in the current situation. “In this personal issue, my party has backed by me. It will be difficult for me to return this favour that the party has done to it. Whenever the party needs me, I will always fight shy of taking up the difficult task,” he said.
Earlier in the morning, when he arrived in Shirdi for the party’s conclave, Munde had said that it was he who had suggested Ajit Pawar take up the post.
“In view of the current situation in Beed, I had suggested to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar that he should take up the post of Beed district guardian minister. I had also made the same suggestion to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,” Munde told reporters.
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In the wake of the allegations against him over the sarpanch murder in Beed, Munde said he did not want the guardian ministership of any district.
“I want to thank the deputy chief minister for agreeing to my suggestions,” he said. “Under Ajit Pawar’s guardian ministership, I am confident Beed district will make rapid progress (like Pune).”
On ignoring Munde for Beed guardian ministership, senior NCP leader Praful Patel said, “Considering the situation in Beed, we have decided to give the responsibility of the district to Ajit Pawar. If the charges levelled against Munde are not proved, we will take a decision in this regard. The district guardian ministership of Beed is with the NCP. The Munde issue is more in the media than on the ground. We would have given him the guardian ministership of some other district, but we decided against it due to the prevailing situation.”
While speaking at the Shirdi convention, Patel said on Saturday that the NCP would take action against Munde if the charges levelled against him were proved. “Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has not said that Munde is guilty. If we get even a slight hint from the CM, we will take action against Munde,” he said.
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After the Beed sarpanch murder, political leaders cutting across party lines targeted Munde and his associate Walmik Karad who was arrested in an extortion case related to the murder.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
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