This is an archive article published on May 4, 2024
Supriya Sule to voters: If you are being threatened, direct these calls to me, I will deal with them
Without naming Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar or his alliance partners, Sule told voters that if they get threat calls, they should direct them to her and she will take care of them.
Supriya with Sharad Pawar in Varvand on Saturday. (Express File Photo)
JUST LIKE her two-wheeler rally which became the cynosure of all eyes in Baramati city on Friday, Supriya Sule, candidate of NCP (SP), had a huge crowd’s attention glued to her at a rally in Varvand area of Daund taluka on Saturday afternoon as she warned her political opponents that ”she will deal with them” if they did not budge from allegedly intimidating the voters.
Without naming Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar or his alliance partners, Sule told voters that if they get threat calls, they should direct them to her and she will take care of them. ”If you are getting threatening calls, direct them to me…I will deal with them,” she said
Sule said she heard that people who keep their favourite leaders as their WhatsApp status were being threatened. “If you get calls or people are coming to your residence to threaten you, direct them to me or ask them to contact me, I will deal with them…You should not fear, keep the WhatsApp status of whoever you want. We will not allow them (rivals) to dictate terms to us…We will not allow our democracy to be destroyed this morning,” she said.
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Later, when asked whether her reference was to Ajit Pawar, Sule said she has made it clear that her political opponents were resorting to such tactics. “Everyone knows who is trying to intimidate the voters,” she said as The Indian Express followed her on a campaign trail.
Despite the blistering heat, over 10,000 people had turned up for Sule’s rally. NCP (SP) national chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Bhaskar Jadhav, who came all the way from Konkan, former minister Rajesh Tope, who came from Jalna, Congress leader Balasaheb Shivarkar and Rohit Pawar were among those present at the rally.
Notwithstanding the presence of the bigwigs, including her father, Sule clearly stole the show as she interacted with the crowd rather than resorting to a monologue. Everytime she threw a poser, someone from the crowd responded readily. “Do you know how many times I have visited Daund and how many times they (rivals) have in the last few months?” A youngster raised his hand and quickly replied that her rivals (read Ajit Pawar-Sunetra Pawar) have not visited even once.
Turning to Ajit Pawar over his constants, Sule said, “Some people are taunting me by saying that merely giving speeches won’t ensure the development of Baramati. But I want
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to strongly assert that development takes place not only by delivering speeches… because we are living in a democracy and not dictatorship.”
Sena leader Bhaskar Jadhav had a word of advice for Sule. “Supriyatai calls Ajit Pawar as dada..he is no more a dada…He only listens to the diktats of his Delhi bosses,” he said.
After her much-talked about rally on Saturday, the Sule Camp looked gung-ho. They were out in big numbers, trying to take the “tutari,” the party symbol, to the citizens. ”Supriyatai brought the city to a standstill yesterday. We never thought there would be such a terrific response,” said an NCP (SP) leader.
At Govindbaug residence of the Pawars on Malegaon Road, there was a flurry of activity. Party leaders could be seen moving in and out. But Sule was busy giving interviews to the media, a day before the campaigning ended.
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Amidst her busy schedule, Sule told The Indian Express that she was not worried one bit about her victory. “I know people of Baramati have full faith in my ability to raise their expectations…I am a proven candidate, have always been at their beck and call,” she 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
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