For Uddhav, photography is oxygen and farmers are close to his heart
Maharashtra’s people have seen the new chief minister’s photography skills through his photo-books Maharashtra Desha, on Shivaji era forts, and Pahava Vitthal, which captures the “wari” from Alandi-Dehugaon to Pandharpur.
Uddhav Thackarey takes pictures from a chopper at Dive ghat. (File)
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Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Thursday, is also an avid photographer. “Photography is like oxygen for me. My hobby is my oxygen,” Uddhav had said at an exhibition of his photography in Mumbai in January 2015.
Maharashtra’s people have seen the new chief minister’s photography skills through his photo-books Maharashtra Desha, on Shivaji era forts, and Pahava Vitthal, which captures the “wari” from Alandi-Dehugaon to Pandharpur. “His photographs of forts and warkaris are show-stoppers,” said Marathi actor Aadesh Bandekar.
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Uddhav also loves capturing wildlife through his lens and is fond of aerial photography. In fact, during one such jungle safari in Madhya Pradesh, Uddhav had run into Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who later became his “close friend”. Many of his photographs are of drought-hit villages, farmers, cattle and farm fields.
“Once while taking photographs of a fort from a chopper, he leaned forward and was zooming down, only to realise that he had forgotten to strap the safety belt on,” recalled former Sena MP Bharatkumar Raut.
If his photographs touched a chord with people, then as Shiv Sena chief, after the death of his father Balasaheb Thackeray in 2011, Uddhav emerged as the “father figure” for Shiv Sainiks. “For Shiv Sainiks, he is like a guardian,” said former minister and Sena leader Divakar Raote.
Sena leaders said that those criticising Uddhav for “having little knowledge of state legislature proceedings” should remember that for the last six-seven years, Uddhav as Sena chief has been closely monitoring the proceedings in the state legislature.
Neelam Gorhe, Sena MLC and Deputy Speaker of the State Legislature Council, said, “He strongly believes in first getting full information of an issue and then holding discussions. He believes in taking a decisive stand.”
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Gorhe said, “When the Kothewadi gangrape happened, Uddhav rushed to the village and extended his full support to ensure justice. When he addressed the gathering there, I saw the seriousness and sensitiveness required in a leader from close quarters.”
Farmers are close to his heart. “Recently when he went to Sangli, he walked for nearly three kilometres in the blazing sun to meet aggrieved farmers. He will go to any length for the sake of farmers,” said former Sena MP Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil.
And recently when unseasonal rain hit farmers, Uddhav was all over the state meeting and trying to understand the farmers’ problems.
PM congratulates Uddhav in tweet: ‘Confident he will work diligently’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated Uddhav Thackeray on taking the oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, saying he is confident that the Shiv Sena chief will work diligently for the bright future of the state.
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“Congratulations to Uddhav Thackeray Ji on taking oath as the CM of Maharashtra. I am confident he will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra,” Modi tweeted.
Thackeray, whose Shiv Sena fought the Assembly elections in a pre-poll alliance with the BJP but broke away over a dispute on the power-sharing formula, took over as CM over a month after results of the Maharashtra Assembly elections were declared on October 24.
Thursday’s swearing-in ceremony follows days of dramatic political developments in Maharashtra, which included a three-day BJP-led government being formed in the state with unexpected support from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar. Pawar has since returned to the Sharad Pawar-led party fold.
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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