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This is an archive article published on October 19, 2014

‘BJP has to decide on alliance with Shiv Sena’

I think the BJP leadership should take the call in this regard.

Mahadev Jankar, who heads the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, is more diplomatic than Raju Shetti, who heads the Swabhimani Shetkari Paksha.

Unlike Shetti who is not keen on an alliance with Shiv Sena due to its vitriolic campaign against the BJP, Jankar says “it is up to the BJP to take the call” whether to shake hands with the Sena or not. On the eve of the counting day, Jankar spoke to Manoj More at length.

Excerpts from the interview:

Exit polls are showing BJP as the number one party. In case BJP falls short of the majority, who do you think it should approach ? Shiv Sena or the NCP ?

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I think the BJP leadership should take the call in this regard.

Are you okay if BJP decides to approach the NCP as it was being widely speculated after the alliance broke and even during the electioneering ?

I don’t think BJP would approach NCP. The state BJP leadership has already made it clear. Besides, BJP and NCP are not allies. Both are different parties which fought against each other for years. Both have separate agenda and ideology.

What about the Sena ? Should BJP approach the Sena in case it falls short of majority?

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Firstly, I don’t think our BJP-led alliance would fall short of majority. Secondly, if it does, then the BJP has to first take the call.

If BJP prefers the Shiv Sena, will such a government last given the bitterness displayed before and during polls?

We feel parties must maintain good level of communication… But it is true I don’t approve of the language used during campaigning. We all should show restraint while speaking against rivals during campaigning.

Will BJP-led alliance go in for a tie-up with MNS if it has the numbers?

Will decide after counting…

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If BJP wins, will it be because of the Modi wave ?

Modi wave plus state BJP’s fight against corruption.

Have you been promised a ministerial post?

We had talked about it during seat-sharing. All allies of Mahayuti will get their share of ministries.

What do you think will be the fate of Ajit Pawar in Baramati?

Ajit Pawar “padnar” (Ajit Pawar will be defeated). The massive turnout for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Baramati gave enough indications of Ajit Pawar’s meeting his water-loo.

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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