Pune (Maharashtra): Giving anxious moments, the trolley of a crane carrying several senior NCP(SP) leaders broke mid-air, but it was gently lowered and a potential tragedy was averted, at the launch of the party’s Shiv Swarajya Yatra (SSY), here on Friday morning. The mishap occurred when NCP(SP) state President Jayant R Patil, Maharashtra’s Women's Wing President Rohini Khadse, state Youth Wing President Mahebub Shaikh and local MP Amol Kolhe, were hoisted in the crane trolley to garland a huge statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at the base of his birthplace, the historic Shivneri Fort. After the garlanding, as they were being brought down, the trolley suddenly snapped and tilted to one side at a dangerous angle, the four leaders on it almost fell into a heap inside the trolley.

As they got up and tried to balance by holding each other, the crane operator slowed the descent and with the trolley dangling precariously, he gingerly brought it down to safety in a few minutes, as the people below held their breaths. All the leaders were shaken but unharmed, and the large crowd of NCP(SP) activists heaved a sigh of relief at their leaders’ providential escape from a potential disaster. Later, Patil and other leaders performed a puja to the accompaniment of the blaring ‘tutari’ (trumpeter is the party’s poll symbol) and launched the SSY, promising to end injustice to the people and bring back the rule of the ryots in the October Assembly elections.

“We shall expose the black deeds of the Mahayuti government before the masses during the SSY which will traverse around the state, from today,” thundered Patil, kick-starting the party’s poll campaign via the mass outreach programme. Over the next few days, the SSY will wend its way through coastal Konkan, western Maharashtra, Marathwada, northern Maharashtra and Vidarbha, interacting with lakhs of people and party workers all over the state in cities, towns, villages and hamlets. “We chose August 9 as this was the day when the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, gave the clarion call to the British to 'Quit India' from the August Kranti Maidan. It is also celebrated as the International Day of the World's Indigenous (Tribals) People,” said Patil, explaining the symbolic importance of the launch date.

He said during the SSY journey to the remotest corners, the NCP (SP) leaders and workers would seek the blessings of the people to give them a fresh mandate to run the state on the ideals of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and other great icons like Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and Dr BR Ambedkar. NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Rajya Sabha MP and Working President Supriya Sule, Lok Sabha MP, are currently busy with the Monsoon Session of Parliament and will join the SSY at a later stage, he said. However, other top leaders including National General Secretary Jitendra Awhad, legislators, state, regional and district-level party leaders and grassroots activists will participate in different regions, with the likelihood of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) local leaders from Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) participating.

(IANS)