At 94, S R Patil doesn’t believe in the conventional methods of keeping fit. “Walking? No, no, not even jogging,” says Maharashtra’s oldest candidate, contesting from Shirol in Kolhapur where he is the sitting Congress MLA.
“I am a workaholic,” he says. “I start my day at 6.30, am in office at 8.30 and remain there till 8.30. Simple eating, going to bed early, and being on the job always have kept me going.”
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His secretary, Ashok Shinde, vouches for his fitness: “Except for one angioplasty, Patil sir has had no age-related problems such as blood pressure or diabetes.”
And Patil says, “I am only Class VII pass, but others can learn a lesson or two from my life.”
He has won three assembly elections starting 1957, with a three-decade break from politics along the way. He proudly recalls his first victory, against Ratnakar Kumbhar of the Congress. “Being a socialist and associated with Rashtriya Seval Dal, I was with the Samyukt Maharashtra Samiti. I defeated Kumbhar with a margin of 13,000,” says Patil. He is married to Krishnabai, 85, and has a son, a daughter, and four granddaughters from the son, who himself has gone on to become a grandfather.
After completing his term, Patil took a break from politics and established in 1971 a sugar factory, Shree Datta Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana. He points proudly at a trophy from the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories. Spanning 200 acres, the factory today employs 5,000 people and pays sugarcane farmers Rs 2,500 per quintal. “Our rate is among the highest by any factory in western Maharashtra,” he says, a claim endorsed by MP Raju Shetti of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna that has been agitating on behalf of cane prices.
Patil returned to politics in 1992 and lost his only Lok Sabha election. In 1999, he became an MLA again by defeating Shyamrao Patil of the NCP. “This was when the Congress had fallen apart, which gave birth to the NCP. These were difficult times for the Congress and I was among the few who withstood the test in western Maharashtra,” he says.
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In the last election, Patil defeated Ulhas Patil of the then fledgling Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana.
“A few weeks ago, I spoke to the chief minister about my intention to contest again, but I was not expecting the ticket in view of my age. My supporters, however, got the form and filled it up,” he says.
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
