Among the NCP leaders who were inducted into the BJP were big names like former Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) Standing Committee chairperson Usha Waghere. (Express photo)
The BJP today roped in as many as 13 former corporators of Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation which includes at least nine from Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Expressing happiness at the mass induction of leaders, especially from NCP, the BJP said it has given Ajit Pawar’s party a befitting reply after it had roped in three of its corporators.
The event to induct former corporators, which was until Friday kept a hush-hush affair, was held in Mumbai in the presence of BJP state president Ravindra Chavan and other leaders.
Among those the BJP roped in on Saturday included former mayor Sanjog Waghere, who was with Shiv Sena (UBT), former PCMC standing committee chairperson Usha Waghere, who was with NCP, former civic standing committee chairperson Prashant Shitole of NCP, Vinod Nade who is from NCP, former deputy mayor Prabhakar Waghere who is from NCP, former mayor Raju Misal of NCP, Amit Gawade from Shiv Sena (UBT), Meenaltai Yadav of Shiv Sena (UBT), Ravi Landge of Shiv Sena (UBT), Sameer Masulkar of NCP and Navnath Jagtap of NCP.
Beside them, Sadguru Kadam, a former Congress corporator and brother of Kailas Kadam, president of Pimpri-Chinchwad unit of Congress, has also joined the BJP.
An elated BJP MLA Mahesh Landge said, ”A few days ago, Ajit Pawar had inducted a few former corporators of BJP into its fold. We have responded strongly and have inducted as many as 23 bigwigs from different parties into our rank.” Of the 23, while 13 are former corporators, the rest are leaders from other parties. One of them is Dr Suhas Kamble, a popular doctor.
Stating that Diwali has started in Pimpri-Chinchwad, the MLA said, ”Ajit Pawar had burst small crackers and we have burst bigger ones. This election will be Pimpri-Chinchwad’s Dada versus Baramati’s Dada. This is what political analysts are saying.”
The BJP said, “For all these entries, none had to slog. The BJP took its decision in the city and finalised here itself. Mahesh Landge has virtually floored NCP. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and party chief Ravindra Chavan are supporting him.”
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BJP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad president Shatrughan Kate said, “All these former corporators have come into our party fold on their own. They wanted to join our party. We have taken them in the party. As of now, I can’t say whether there will be more former corporators joining us. It might happen, it might not.”
A few days back, three former BJP corporators had joined NCP in the presence of Ajit Pawar. This had irked the BJP which hit back today.
When contacted, NCP state president Sunil Tatkare said: “We had discussed this issue with the chief minister and other BJP leaders. We had decided not to take each other’s leaders. We will again have discussion in this regard.”
Reacting to BJP’s remarks about hitting back, Yogesh Behl, president, Pimpri-Chinchwad NCP, said, “Leaders come and leaders go. What is important is how the voters react. The voter is the king. It won’t matter to us…We will also give a good reply to BJP. Wait and watch.”
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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