Family divided: Maharashtra minister Dharmaraobaba Atram's daughter Bhagyashree Atram Halgekar joins NCP (SP), likely to fight against dad from Aheri

NAGPUR: The political turmoil in Gadchiroli reached a climax on Thursday with former zilla parishad president Bhagyashree Atram Halgekar finally following through on her threat of deserting her father, FDA minister Dharmaraobaba Atram.

Bhagyashree on Thursday announced at a rally at Aheri in south Gadchiroli that she has joined the camp of Sharad Pawar, who as the then CM had helped her father when he had been kidnapped by Maoists in the early 90s.

In the presence of NCP(SP) stalwarts like former home minister Anil Deshmukh and Jayant Patil, she vowed to work for the masses. She also indicated her readiness to fight the coming state election against her father. With her jumping into the fray, the Aheri assembly constituency is likely to have three members of the same family fighting the election on the tickets of three key parties of the state. Her cousin Ambarish is set to fight from BJP, while Dharmarao is from the NCP (Ajit Pawar) group.

Bhagyashree, who was at her in-laws’ place for Ganpati puja in Karnataka, returned to the district to formally announce her joining her father’s rivals. Political sources said Bhagyashree had even turned a deaf ear to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who tried to dissuade her from switching camps. Five days ago, Dharmaraobaba had lambasted his daughter and her husband with a terse remark of ‘hurling her into the river’.

Bhagyashree, when asked about her father’s remarks, told TOI that she considered the strong words from him as his ‘blessings’. “I will work for the development of my areas, women’s empowerment, improving the education standard, and also the health sector, so incidents like the deaths of two brothers do not take place,” said Bhagyashree, adding she would also become the anti-mining voice of south Gadchiroli.

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