Former police officer and encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma has shed the khaki for saffron. On October 3, Sharma, famous for taking the Mumbai mafia head on in his 35-year-long career, filed his nomination as a Shiv Sena candidate for the Maharashtra assembly polls from Nalasopara, about 50km from Mumbai. On day two of his campaign, he addressed a gathering of more than a hundred people in Moregaon, about 25km from his newly painted two-storey party office in west Nalasopara. “I am the change you have been waiting for so long,” he roared. “There is nothing and nobody to fear anymore.”
Sharma was heading the anti-extortion cell of the Thane Police when he applied for voluntary retirement to join politics this July; he was just a few months short of retirement. “This is a bigger platform for me and also a way of giving back all that the Thackerays have done for me in the past,” he said. “[Shiv Sena chief] Uddhav sir even came to my daughter’s wedding and Balasaheb Thackeray [party founder] had always been by my side.”
The Shiv Sena, he admitted, made a calculated move by assigning him the “difficult” seat of Nalasopara so as to give a tough fight and end the “terror” of Hitendra and Kshitij Thakur, the father-son duo whose Bahjun Vikas Aaghadi (BVA) has a strong presence in the area and presently controls the Vasai-Virar civic body. In the 2014 assembly polls, the BVA had won both Vasai and Nalasopara assembly seats. Sharma will be contesting against Kshitij, a two-time MLA from Nalasopara.
The Vasai-Virar belt is dominated by a migrant population, both from within and outside the state, making it a substantial vote bank. Kshitij said Sharma had no idea of the constituency’s geography or demography. “He has not visited Nalasopara in the last 25 years, while we are in touch with the people throughout the five years, and not just during elections,” said Kshitij, also questioning Sharma’s credibility as a police officer as he was dismissed from service and jailed in 2008 for his alleged involvement in the Lakhan Bhaiya fake encounter case; he was reinstated after a gap of nine years.
But for Kanhaiya Kumar, a rickshaw driver from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh who now lives in Nalasopara with his family, what matters is that the basic amenities, like availability of drinking water for three hours every morning and power supply through the night, are taken care of. Though he has no vote here, Kumar’s view might be shared by a few in the migrant community.
For Amrita Karmakar though, change is inevitable. Stepping out of her tiny tailoring shop in Moregaon to “take a look at the famous encounter cop”, she said, “We have been voting for the BVA, but there has not been much change in my area over the years. We would want Nalasopara to be as developed as, say, Andheri or Dadar. But, to everyone, our area is dominated by criminals and thugs. I think we should have some change now and more development.”
As his campaign gained momentum, Sharma assured the people that he was the right candidate to give a fight to the Thakurs, given his past as a fearless, headstrong cop. He promised them better roads, continuous water supply, uninterrupted electricity and educational infrastructure. “Even the only educational institution in Nalasopara is owned by the Thakurs. Do you not want more?” he asked the crowd.
Sharma, who has been credited with killing more than a hundred gangsters and drug peddlers between 1989 to 2006, has declared assets worth Rs36.21 crore in his affidavit. How does it feel to be a crorepati cop-turned-politician? “It is just the love of people and my love for my work and my land that has got me to where I am,” said the sharpshooter. “I am very confident of winning this election. You can see the love people are showering on me in these rallies. That is proof enough.”