Notably, in 2017, no Congress candidate could win in the civic polls. The party had ruled PCMC for 15 years from 1986.
The appointment of Kailas Kadam as the president of the Pimpri-Chinchwad unit of the Congress has not gone down well in certain quarters of the grand old party. His detractors have, reportedly, told the party high command that Kadam’s ‘criminal background’ will sully the image of the organisation. Notably, several criminal cases are pending against Kadam in the Pune district.
Kadam has faced murder, attempt-to-murder and extortion charges in the past. He has also been externed from Pimpri-Chinchwad a couple of times.
Sources said that Kadam has been picked by Team Rahul, which was searching for “fiery and aggressive” leaders to take on rivals.
Prithviraj Sathe, the national secretary of the Congress, said, “Kadam has been acquitted in several criminal cases. Most cases registered against him were politically motivated.”
Sathe said the Congress leadership has picked Kadam after giving a proper thought and looking at his seniority in the party. “The party has picked him to revitalise the rank and file. We are in a bad shape in Pimpri-Chinchwad, and we needed a strong leader. Kadam fits the bill to head the local unit,” he added.
Asked about the opposition to Kadam’s appointment within the party, Sathe said at a press conference held in Akurdi on Tuesday: “Some of those who opposed Kadam’s appointment are present in this room. We will try to convince them about the need to back him in order to lift the party.”
Sachin Sathe, the state-level secretary of the Congress, said, “Kadam’s appointment has unnerved many leaders and office bearers in the party. They held a meeting and have decided to oppose his appointment. They have conveyed their sentiments to me and I will take up the matter with the party leadership.”
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Sachin Sathe added, “Party leaders and office bearers have said that they cannot believe that the Congress appointed a man with a criminal background to lead the party in Pimpri-Chinchwad. They said that it will now be difficult for them to face the electorate in the upcoming civic elections.”
Sachin Sathe gave the press conference a miss.
At the press conference, Kadam evaded questions regarding his image. He, however, said that the party was behind him and it would perform better under him in the forthcoming polls.
Notably, in 2017, no Congress candidate could win in the civic polls. The party had ruled PCMC for 15 years from 1986. “I will unite the rank and file of the party and regain the lost glory of the Congress,” he said.
Kadam said BJP-ruled PCMC was neck-deep in corruption. “We will highlight the corruption in PCMC during the upcoming elections. We have many strong candidates to fight the civic elections and are confident of winning 20-25 seats,” he said.
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.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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