Promises development: Sunil Shelke wins in Maval, ends BJP streak
The BJP favoured its two-time MLA Bala Bhegade, who also received the portfolio of a state minister about three months ago. Bhegade’s proximity to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis helped his cause, claimed BJP sources.
Shelke, who contested the Assembly election for the first time, was earlier a BJP councillor in Talegaon Municipal Council. NCP sources said party leader Ajit Pawar was the one to rope in Shelkhe and field him from Maval. (Source: Facebook)
Ending the BJP’s five-term winning streak, the NCP’s Sunil Shelke won against ruling party minister Bala Bhegde in Maval Assembly constituency. Shelke secured 1,67,548 votes while Bhegde received 73,677 votes.
Shelke, who contested the Assembly election for the first time, was earlier a BJP councillor in Talegaon Municipal Council. NCP sources said party leader Ajit Pawar was the one to rope in Shelkhe and field him from Maval. Shelke’s addition had changed the mood in the NCP’s rank and file, they added.
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Shelke had earlier sought a ticket from the BJP, but was denied the nomination, said sources. The BJP favoured its two-time MLA Bala Bhegade, who also received the portfolio of a state minister about three months ago. Bhegade’s proximity to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis helped his cause, claimed BJP sources.
The NCP’s strategy of roping in Shelke was compared to the 1995 election in which the BJP had recruited Congress leader Rooplekha Dhore and fielded her from Maval. Dhore’s win was the start of the party’s five-term streak — Dhore won in 1995, Digambar Bhegde in 1999 and 2004 and Bala Bhegade in 2009 and 2014. Before 1995, the Maval seat was a stronghold of the Congress. From 1962 to 1990, except for once, Congress candidates won from the seat. In 1972, Jansangh candidate Krishnarao Bhegade had won. Advocate Madan Bafna, who also won twice from the Maval seat, had become a state minister in the Congress government.
Shelke said he will work to provide jobs to youths, set up good roads and develop Maval. “Maval will see new development coming its way as well as good quality roads,” he 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.
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