Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories
Maharashtra minister Meghana Bordikar ‘threatens to slap gram sevak’, Rohit Pawar says her act an insult to state
Meghana Bordikar defended herself, claiming that her anger was due to complaints from women labourers about the gram sevak obstructing access to government funds and benefits.

Maharashtra Minister of State Meghana Bordikar has triggered a row after a video showing her allegedly threatening to slap a gram sevak if he fails to bring beneficiaries of a government scheme to a public function surfaced. Opposition Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar Saturday shared the video, shot during an event at Jintur in the Parbhani district, on social media and slammed the Devendra Fadnavis government.
In a post on X, written in Marathi, Pawar said, “A minister has threatened to slap a gram sevak if he failed to bring the beneficiary of a government scheme to the government function. Who has given her the power to threaten the gram sevak?”
सभागृहात रम्मी खेळणारे…
पैशांच्या बॅगा भरणारे…
डान्सबार चालवणारे…
आधी वाकडं काम करून नंतर सरळ करणाऱ्यांचा गौरव करणारे..
यामध्ये भर पडली ती आता थेट अधिकाऱ्यांच्या कानाखाली वाजवण्याची धमकी देणाऱ्या मंत्र्याची…सरकारी कार्यक्रमाला घरकुलाच्या लाभार्थ्यांना आणण्याचं टार्गेट… pic.twitter.com/rRMbQsPHde
— Rohit Pawar (@RRPSpeaks) August 2, 2025
Taking a jibe at CM Fadnavis, Pawar added, ”What kind of a minister have you succeeded in picking? With such ministers, it is an affront not just your Cabinet but the state of Maharashtra.”
Reacting to the video of her speech, Bordikar, the two-time BJP MLA from Jintur, said, ”I expressed my anger at a function yesterday. At the function, zilla parishad officials were present. This particular gram sevak was not taking the welfare schemes being implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to the poor people. He was creating impediments.”
She said women labourers had informed her that the gram sevak was not giving them government funds and telling them to repeatedly go to the sarpanch’s house. He had not been assisting them in accessing the benefits of the housing scheme, and they were not receiving the instalment payments, she added.
”I lost cool because the women labourers had complained to me about the harassment from the gram sevak,” said Bordikar, who is the Minister of State for Public Health, Water Supply and Sanitation, Energy, Women and Child Development, and Public Works (Public Undertakings). She is also the Guardian Minister of the Parbhani district.
Hitting back at Pawar and the Opposition, she said, ”The video was edited and what I said before making the statement and after has not been shown.”
A gram sevak is a government official who plays a crucial role in implementing rural development programs and schemes, serving as a link between the government and the villagers.
—-
Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories