NCP woman candidate files papers amidst heavy police security in Solapur
Patil said the Chief Minister must have been hugely embarrassed after learning about the behaviour of his party leader. "We are hoping the CM will take some action in this regard," he added.
The District Collector confirmed police protection was provided after Thite complained about threats from rivals. (Source: File/ Representational)
Ujwala Thite, a farmer and a candidate from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, on Monday filed her nomination papers after a BJP leader and his associates allegedly prevented her from going to the election office. Thite filed her nominations amidst heavy police security provided by Solapur police, in what is being said to be the first such incident in the history of the district.
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Thite reached the election office in Angar village at 5.30 in the morning. She then phoned the police and sought their protection after complaining about the threat to her life. A huge contingent of armed police personnel, including those of SRPF, soon descended at the election office and ensured necessary security to the woman farmer.
“I finally filed my nomination papers for presidency of the Angar Nagar Panchayat,” Thite told The Indian Express soon after filing her nomination papers. “After they provided the security, I filed my papers after 10 am,” she said. Thite was accompanied by her son to the election office.
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In last eight days, Thite alleged that she was prevented by her rivals — primarily a BJP leader who had recently joined the party — from filing her papers thrice. “They had stationed goons on the road to block my way. They blocked my way with tractors and other vehicles.
They chased me with sharp weapons, threatened and abused me,” she told the media in Solapur. She also released a video alleging threat from a BJP leader and former minister to her life.
When told about the plight of the woman candidate, Solapur District Collector Kumar Ashirwad said, “The woman has filed her nominations successfully… We gave her police protection since she had complained about a threat.”
Kumar added that she has been told she will be given police security when she must approach the polling office for the scrutiny of her nomination papers. Thite said she has not been allowed to enter her village for days. “I don’t know how I will campaign. I will have to do online campaigning,” she said.
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NCP Solapur district president Umesh Patil alleged that a BJP leader was behind the attempts to prevent the woman candidate from filing the nomination papers. “The BJP leader wants to ensure that the election to the Angar Nagar Panchayat is held unopposed. Before the Angar Nagar Panchayat became a Nagar Panchayat, it was a gram panchayat. For more than 60 years, the election to this panchayat was held unopposed. The truth is now out. This is how they got the elections unopposed, by threatening the candidates with dire consequences. In this case, sadly, a woman farmer who has little family support was being threatened openly and brazenly.”
Patil said, “The woman is an official candidate of NCP. The entire BJP is not against her. It is just one particular leader who wants to gets his family member elected unopposed as president of the Nagar Panchayat who resorted to do this dirty trick.”
Patil said the Chief Minister must have been hugely embarrassed after learning about the behaviour of his party leader. “We are hoping the CM will take some action in this regard,” he added.
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.
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