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Sushil Kumar Shinde: I am confident people of Solapur will choose the right sevak this time

In an interview with The Indian Express, the former home minister said he was confident of winning the seat for the fourth time and would remain in politics as long as he remains fit.

Sushil Kumar Shinde, socio-economic growth, Mumbai news, Maharashtra news, Indian express news Sushilkumar Shinde (File Photo)

Former Home Minister and veteran Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, who has won from Solapur seat thrice in 20 years and lost once, is coming out of self-imposed political retirement to again contest from Solapur city seat. On Wednesday, the Congress announced his name from Solapur seat. In an interview with The Indian Express, Shinde said he was confident of winning the seat for the fourth time and would remain in politics as long as he remains fit. Shinde had lost to Sharad Bansode of BJP in the 2014 elections.

You are back in the poll ring. At 77, how confident are you of overcoming the challenges being put up by the BJP?

I am happy that the party has reposed faith in me once again. The people of Solapur have given me a chance to represent them in Parliament thrice. I am fully confident that they will choose their “right sevak” this time too.

People in Solapur grumble that their people’s representative was not available for them when they needed him. Your comment.

I don’t know about him, but last five years, I have been with the people of Solapur. Whenever they needed me, I was among them. I was interacting, understanding their problems and tried to get their grievances resolved.

Your close friend NCP chief Sharad Pawar first decided to contest from Madha seat and then has decided to opt out. Do you think he should have contested the elections like you have done?

I don’t know… It is a personal decision. Both his decisions are his own, so I think it will not be appropriate to comment about my friend’s decision. Click here for more election news

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Prakash Ambedkar and his Bahujan Vanchit Aghadi has decided to not join the maha-alliance led by the Congress. It is being considered as a major blow to secular forces. Your comment.

Prakash Ambedkar is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the architect of our Constitution. Dr Ambedkar’s secular ideologies are very well. I am sure Prakash Ambedkar will keep this in view and do everything possible to strengthen secular forces. As far as I know, discussions at the highest level are underway. I am confident he will not leave the maha-alliance and some arrangement will be worked out.

Top Congress leaders in Maharashtra apparently do not see eye to eye on various issues. There seem to be some face-off underway among Congress leaders.

I don’t think there is any problem or any quarrel in the Congress. Today, I was at a Congress meeting and all leaders were present there.

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Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the Congress was struggling to find good candidates in Maharashtra. Do you share this view?

We are not struggling, but we are flooded with applications. But we are looking at the elective merits of the candidates. We have to consider all the aspects before picking the right candidate.

Last time, Congress won only two seats in Maharashtra. How will the party fare this time?

The atmosphere is congenial for the party to do far better than the last time. I feel at least 85 per cent of our candidates will win this time. We will all make efforts towards that end.

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After the last elections, you had announced your retirement from politics. How long will you stay in politics?

I will be in the service of the people as long as I can. I will serve the people of Solapur, the people across the country and my party till I remain fit.

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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  • General Elections 2019 Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Sushil Kumar Shinde
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