Sena expels key leader who exposed corruption, violation of norms in PCMC

No room for young, committed leaders in Shiv Sena, says Rahul Narvekar

Sarang Kamtekar

After forcing its English-speaking TV face Rahul Narvekar from Mumbai to quit the party, the Shiv Sena has now dumped its urbane young face in Pune, Sarang Kamtekar, who articulated the party’s views effectively to the media and at various public forums. The Sena leadership has cited no reason for his expulsion and various senior leaders seemed clueless about the move, which has added to the confusion prevailing in the party in Maval constituency.

A campaign manager for sitting MP Gajanan Babar, Kamtekar (42) has served as vice-president of the Sena’s youth wing. Kamtekar in tandem with his wife, corporator Seema Savle, has in the past 10 years exposed — mainly through RTI applications — several acts of omission and commission of the NCP-ruled Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). The duo had taken the PCMC to court on several occasions and succeeded in bringing a stay on projects that were being carried out in violation of norms. Kamtekar had forced the PCMC administration to do a rethink on premium reduction for constructions along BRTS route that would have resulted in a loss of Rs 3,750 crore to the civic body. He was also instrumental in highlighting the “TDR irregularities” in PCMC.

Kamtekar said he had learnt of his expulsion through party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’. “The party leadership has given me no reason for it,” he said. Saying he was shocked and hurt by the decision, Kamtekar said, “ have a been a loyal party workers for 24 years. I have no intention to join any other party,” he said.

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No Sena leader was in a position to pinpoint the reason for the move. Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe said, “I don’t know…you can ask other party leaders such as Shrirang Barne.” Barne was not available for comment. Sena general secretary Anil Desai, who reportedly drafts expulsion letters on the directives of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, said, “I am not aware of it as I was out of town for two-three days.” He said Sena leader Subhash Desai might know the reason. When contacted, Subash Desai said Neelam Gorhe would be aware of it. Pune district Sena chief Baba Dhumal, too, evaded a reply.

Kamtekar, however, hinted that Sena’s Maval candidate Shrirang Barne could be behind the move. “Those who have come into Sena from other parties and have nothing to do with Sena ideology are now calling the shots in the Sena,” he said, in an apparent reference to Barne who had defected from Congress to Sena four years ago. Some Sena leaders alleged that Kamtekar was instigating party rank and file to protest Barne’s nomination as Sena candidate from Maval. “As many as 45 party office-bearers have resigned at his behest,” said a Sena leader who did not wish to be named.

NCP’s Maval candidate Rahul Narvekar, who quit the Shiv Sena on Monday, said, “There is no room for young, committed and loyal leaders such as Kamtekar in Sena…That is why I, too, quit the party.”

Kamtekar, who is convent educated, is the among the few Sena leaders in Pune who articulated the party’s views in English.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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