Gadchiroli (Maharashtra) : A woman hurled a slipper at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Chamorshi village of the state Tuesday, but missed, the politician’s aide said.
The woman – identified as Shobha Mhaske – raised pro-Vidarbha slogans and hurled her slipper at Pawar.
However, as she was at quite some distance from the dais, she missed the target and the slipper landed in the crowd.
Security personnel immediately detained her even as she continued to shout slogans in support of a separate state of Vidarbha – comprising 11 districts of eastern Maharashtra.
The incident happened after Pawar, Home Minister R.R. Patil and Nationalist Congress Party state president Sunil Tatkare and others addressed a rally as a warm-up to the ensuing assembly elections.
Pawar did not react to the incident. Later, he commented that the demand for a separate Vidarbha state is not being raised by people of the region, for which the state government had allocated huge developmental funds.
This is the second instance of public showing their ire on a minister in the past one week in the state.
On Friday, some activists of the Dhangar community demanding reservation hurled an ink laced with chemicals on Cooperatives Minister Harshwardhan Patil, leaving him seriously injured in the left eye.
Luckily, Patil escaped permanent damage to the eye following timely medical attention and hospitalisation.
Later, when the trio of Pawar, Patil and Tatkare reached Gadchiroli rest house from the Chamorshi village, they encountered a large group of tribal youths who were opposing that any reservation be given to the Dhangar community.
Pawar assured them that they will not be deprived of their rights as no other community will be accommodated in the tribal reservations quota.