Pune auto driver pens letter in own blood to Sharad Pawar, asks him to withdraw resignation as NCP chief
After Sharad Pawar announced his decision to quit as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief, the party workers have been in deep confusion and despair. In Pune, they are staging protests, threatening to resign from the party if the founder does not take back his resignation.
But one worker has gone a step further; he has written a letter to Pawar in his blood, requesting the leader to reconsider his decision to quit.
Sandip Shashikant Kale, 32, an autorickshaw driver, said he is an NCP worker and a “big fan” of Pawar. He also heads the Saheb Foundation, named after Pawar, which does social work.
“I can’t imagine continuing in social life with Saheb resigning. He’s my ideal and I cannot understand his decision to resign. Hence, I have penned him a letter with my blood,” said Kale.
“Saheb, this decision of yours is not acceptable to anyone. We are feeling like orphans. You are our God and we want you to change this decision,” Kale wrote in the letter.
He said that after learning about Pawar quitting on Tuesday afternoon, he couldn’t help but take the drastic step. “I know that in the evening, Ajit Dada (Pawar) appealed to the party workers not to protest and harm themselves. I had written the letter in the afternoon itself and have now posted it to Saheb’s residence at Silver Oak in Mumbai,” said Kale.
The NCP’s Pune unit has also planned several activities to convince the leader to withdraw his resignation. On Tuesday, NCP spokesperson Pradeep Deshmukh, senior leaders Ravindra Malvadkar, Nilesh Nikam, Kaka Chavan, Roopali Patil-Thombare, Sadanand Shetty, Mrunalini Pawar, Ajinkya Palkar and Vikram Jadhav staged a dharna outside the party headquarters in Shivajinagar.
Other senior leaders, including city NCP chief Prashant Jagtap, former mayor Ankush Kakade, and Baburao Chandere, were in Mumbai for the function and also participated in the dharna, appealing to Pawar to withdraw his resignation.
