NCP ups the ante to break 15-yr-old jinx in Shirur, targets Adhalrao

Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil launched a scathing attack on NCP leaders who, he said, were out to defame him in a bid to oust him as people’s representative.

Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil

At a rally held last Monday in Khed taluka which was attended by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, party’s three-time MP from Shirur constituency, Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil launched a scathing attack on NCP leaders who, he said, were out to defame him in a bid to oust him as people’s representative.

“They don’t have any issues on which to campaign against me. That is the reason why they have resorted to defaming me… but it won’t work. People know the kind of development work I have ushered in,” Adhalrao said.

“NCP leaders are alleging that I am nowhere to be seen in the constituency and have failed to bring the airport in the taluka. This is all hogwash and there is no truth in this,” he said, challenging the NCP leaders to prove their allegations.

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The usually mild-mannered Adhalrao was unusually combative that day at the rally, and the reason is not difficult to guess. As the election season draws near, the NCP has been attacking him every day as it tries to wrest the Shirur constituency where Shiv Sena has been winning for the last 15 years.

“We are confident we will snatch the seat from the Sena in 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” state NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Mallik told The Indian Express on Sunday.

The NCP claims it is inundated with requests from aspirants to contest from Shirur. Though it has not named anyone, former MLA Vilas Lande and Devdutt Nikam are said to be in the race. Lande, considered close to Ajit Pawar and who has lots of relatives in the area, is being considered a serious contender.

Mallik said NCP was also eying the neighbouring seat of Maval, from where Parth Pawar, son of Ajit Pawar, is being talked of as a possible candidate. Party leaders say if Parth Pawar is indeed fielded, it will brighten up the party’s chances not just in Maval but also in Shirur.

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“If Parth contests, then we will be in a real position to snatch both seats from Sena,” an NCP leader claimed.

In the last few weeks, as the party gets into campaign mode, the NCP has been targetting Adhalrao for doing precious little for his constituency. Party leaders have been pointing the lack of development works in Shirur constituency, and especially the fact that Adhalrao could not get the new Pune airport to be located in this area.

“Adhalrao has been facing fire for quite some time now. His failure to bring the new airport which could have triggered a host of development projects in the region is obviously being played up by the NCP,” said political analyst Madhav Sahasrabuddhe.

Adhalrao says he cannot be held responsible for airport going to Purandar. “The decision was entirely taken by the state government. I am not more powerful than the state government. Apparently, the terrain in Shirur was not suitable for the airport. The government gave a report that there are five mountains in Shirur area and therefore airport cannot come up in the region,” he said.

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“But look at what I have delivered. Nearly Rs 15,000 crore development work has started in Shirur constituency which includes Pune-Nashik railway line and Pune-Nashik highway six-laning, Junnar-Sinnar road widening,” he claimed.

In 2014 elections, he had told The Indian Express a day before the counting of votes that he would win by over 2 lakh votes, which is what happened. “In 2019 elections, too I will win with a huge margin. You wait and see,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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