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This is an archive article published on February 17, 2023

VBA backs independent candidate Rahul Kalate

VBA had supported Kalate during the 2019 elections too. On this, NCP said 'it was up to Shiv Sena (UBT) to convince VBA', while Sena refused to comment on the VBA-Kalate pact.

Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi Kasba bypoll Prakash AmbedkarVBA chief Prakash Ambedkar at an event in Vani, Yavatmal. (Twitter)
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VBA backs independent candidate Rahul Kalate
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The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on Thursday announced its support for independent candidate Rahul Kalate, while keeping Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at a distance. VBA had supported Kalate during the 2019 elections too. On this, NCP said ‘it was up to Shiv Sena (UBT) to convince VBA’, while Sena refused to comment on the VBA-Kalate pact.

“The VBA has decided to extend its support to independent candidate Rahul Kalate in the Chinchwad Assembly by-poll. We had supported him in the 2019 Assembly elections too, and secured 1.12 lakh votes. If there is any candidate who can stop BJP, it is Rahul Kalate, and therefore, we (VBA executive committee) has decided to support him,” said state VBA chief Rekha Thakur.

Similarly, the VBA said it will not support the MVA candidate contesting in the Kasba by-poll either, according to party leaders.

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VBA has taken the decision primarily on the recent revelation by BJP leader and state Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, that ‘NCP chief Sharad Pawar was aware of his (Fadnavis) and Ajit Pawar’s government formation in 2019’. “NCP leader Ajit Pawar had earlier said that he had support from his party… because of the revelations, the situation within MVA has changed. And since NCP has nowhere stated it will not go with BJP, we have decided to back Kalate,” said Thakur, adding that VBA wanted Shiv Sena (UBT) to contest the Chinchwad seat. “However, it did not happen.”

VBA is in alliance with Shiv Sena (UBT), led by Uddhav Thackeray, and is so far limited to the Mumbai civic body elections.

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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