Maharashtra Assembly polls: MVA will win all Pune seats, voters upset with Mahayuti, says NCP (SP)’s Kakade
There is an atmosphere of negativity in Maharashtra since the BJP-led Mahayuti came to power. The Eknath Shinde-led government has failed on all fronts, says Kakade, the president of NCP (SP) Pune city unit.
Ankush Kakade, president of NCP (SP) Pune city unit, has been in the forefront of campaigning for all MVA candidates in the city. Kakade, who is also the former mayor of Pune and a close aide of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, is confident the MVA will win all eight Pune city seats.
Excerpts from an interview with Manoj More:
The campaigning ended today. How is your party and the MVA placed in the city?
We are in a far better position than the BJP-led Mahayuti. We are confident of winning all eight seats in Pune. Our party is contesting on four seats and we will win all of them.
On what grounds are you making such claims?
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This is a fact and you will come to know on November 23. There is an atmosphere of negativity in Maharashtra since the BJP-led Mahayuti came to power. The Eknath Shinde-led government has failed on all fronts. Inflation has been rising, industries and jobs are going to Gujarat, women’s security is poor, farmers are ending their lives, farm produce is not fetching good prices. What has the Mahayuti government done? Nothing. Why will the people of Maharashtra vote for them?
Isn’t the Ladki Bahin Yojana going to be a major game-changer as claimed by Mahayuti leaders?
Not at all. They remembered their ‘Ladki Bahin’ only when they failed in the Lok Sabha elections. They knew they will lose if they don’t have anything up their sleeves. So they brought in Ladki Bahin Yojana. But Ladki Bahin Yojana has hit development work across Maharashtra. You can go and ask the district collectors, how all development funds have been diverted to pay the monthly assistance to women. People of this state are sensible, they know the government is offering them bribes to buy votes. They will the put government in its right place.
But the BJP-led Mahayuti implemented Metro project in Pune?
In the first place, who started the Pune Metro project? Who conceived and planned it? It was done when the Congress-NCP was in power in Maharashtra and UPA at the Centre. But who stopped the Metro project from taking off? It was the former BJP MP from Pune. They kept debating whether the Metro should be underground or elevated. A lot of time was wasted on this. They opposed our plan. And therefore the Metro was delayed and its cost went up.
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What is your assessment of the overall situation prevailing in Maharashtra?
Like the Lok Sabha elections, the MVA will do well in the Assembly elections also. We will keep the momentum going. People expressed their anger during the Lok Sabha elections against the BJP-led Mahayuti. Between Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the state and central governments have done nothing to alleviate the miseries of people. Except for breaking parties, stealing names and symbols, the BJP has done nothing. It launches a small project and makes a big noise.
Is the MVA united in Maharashtra and Pune as well?
Of course, it is. Our leaders have addressed several rallies across Maharashtra. There is full coordination between everyone.
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What are your views on Baramati? Ajit Pawar or Yugendra Pawar?
Baramati admires the way Sharad Pawar has ensured their development. Old-timers in Baramati are fully with our national president. While the youngsters are divided between Ajit Pawar and Yugendra Pawar. I think people will vote for Yugendra as he has been backed by Sharad Pawar.
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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