E-Paper
Lok Sabha elections 2019: Will expose how BJP wasted last five years, says Pune candidate Joshi
Mohan Joshi says he is sure that all the party workers will be united and work to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in Pune.
Congress on Monday midnight declared Mohan Joshi as its Pune Lok Sabha candidate. In October 23, 2003, Joshi and the party supporters blackened the face of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin Togadia at Swargate in Pune after the latter passed derogatory remarks against United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Joshi even gheraoed KS Sudarshan when he was the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief for his comments against minorities and Gandhi.
Joshi is considered a Congress loyalist. In the 1996 elections, when Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi failed to get the party ticket and formed the Pune Vikas Aghadi and the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, Joshi did not join Kalmadi. He was Congress city unit president in 2003 and even contested the general elections in 1999. Joshi shares the party’s late decision to pick the candidate.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims that Congress has affected its poll campaign by delaying the announcement for party candidate for Pune Lok Sabha. What is your reaction?
Residents have already forgotten the BJP’s Pune candidate. Let them celebrate before polls, as the results declared on May 23 will show the Congress candidate winning the elections. Citizens are only discussing the Congress candidate. They are very much aware what guardian minister Girish Bapat has done in the last five years and how he has been unable to handle Pune’s water issue and helmet campaign.
With the party declaring the Pune candidate late, will it be difficult to reach out to all voters?
We are taking the party’s decision on a positive note. Before the announcement of the ticket, we were doing preparations on ground. All willing candidates were conducting meetings. As the opposition parties, including BJP, and citizens were discussing about the Congress candidate for the last two weeks, it helped us reach out to many people. We will touch all voters and expose how the BJP government wasted the last five years of its rule.
As there were many willing candidates within the Congress, how will you convince them to campaign for you?
It is natural that many leaders have expressed their desire to contest the Lok Sabha polls, but the party can give a ticket to only one person. I am sure that all the workers will be united and work to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in Pune. Already, all the willing candidates gathered at the Congress Bhavan on Tuesday evening and attended the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) meeting.
Tell us about your agitations against VHP and RSS leader?
I entered the VHP meeting and blackened the face of Togadia for his hate agenda against minorities and Gandhi. In response to the Tehelka scam, the then RSS chief K Sudarshan was gheraoed for almost two hours at Pune airport. After police intervention, Sudarshan was released. Those were political agitations and are history, as I am now working for betterment of society.
