Asked whether the BJP leadership has accepted his resignation, Pawar said,'' I have sent my resignation to the state BJP chief. So far, I have not received any call from them.''
Listen to this article
Jolt to BJP as Pimpri leader Eknath Pawar quits, decides to join Maratha quota agitation
x
00:00
1x1.5x1.8x
Pimpri-Chinchwad BJP leader Eknath Pawar has resigned from the party in protest against the Maharashtra government’s alleged indecisiveness on the Maratha reservation issue. The BJP said the reason cited by Pawar for leaving the party does not sound convincing.
”I am resigning from the party’s primary membership from today itself. I will join the agitation launched by Manoj Jarange-Patil to get reservations for the Maratha community,” Pawar, a former city unit president, former PCMC Opposition leader and a party spokesperson, said at a press conference in Pimpri Sunday.
Pawar said he was disappointed that the BJP, despite being in power, could not address the key grievance of the Maratha community. ”The Maratha community has been agitating for reservation. Several youths have died. Now, Manoj Jarange-Patil is spearheading the community’s fight. I met him recently and promised to join him to secure justice for the Maratha community. I am also from Marathwada and belong to the Maratha community. If my community is fighting relentlessly to get justice, it is my responsibility to help them in this cause,” he said.
Story continues below this ad
Asked whether the BJP leadership has accepted his resignation, Pawar said,” I have sent my resignation to the state BJP chief. So far, I have not received any call from them.”
Asked whether he planned to join the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena as rumoured, Pawar said, ”I will announce my political decision after October 27.”
Pawar said he has been with the party for over 30 years and has participated in several agitations. ”In Pimpri-Chinchwad, there were no takers for the BJP for years. I have worked from that time. No one was ready to take the BJP’s flag in hand. I have slogged for the party 24×7. But I am now leaving the party with a heavy heart to get justice for my community. At least, I will contribute my bit for my community,” he said.
When asked about Pawar’s resignation, BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president Shankar Jagtap said, “The reason cited by Eknath Pawar for leaving the party is not convincing. A few days ago, when I heard he was likely to quit the party, I called him up and urged him to stay put. Even our state chief spoke to him. We will continue to make efforts and see to it that he withdraws his resignation.”
Story continues below this ad
”He said the Maratha community has not got justice from the BJP. This is not true. No other party has fought for Maratha reservation as the BJP has. In fact, the Mahayuti government has gone all-out to secure justice for the Maratha community. And it is continuing to work towards that end. The state government is committed to ensuring justice for the community. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has repeatedly spoken about how the government intends to give reservation to the Maratha community that will be upheld in the courts,” he said.
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
3 min read
