Anti-toll messages flood Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis’ cellphone

His cellphone kept buzzing as he attended functions with President Pranab Mukherjee in Pune. His private secretary Sumit Wankhede was also in the firing line.

It emerged later that anti-toll activists from Kolhapur had resorted to protest against the Chief Minister’s U-turn on scrapping the levy. A panel of anti-toll activists from Ravivar Peth in Kolhapur had made CM’s personal mobile phone number public, urging sympathisers to flood him with text messages demanding a rollback of the levy. Even Wankhede’s mobile numbers, along with contact coordinates of CM’s office and Nagpur residence, were shared.

The anti-toll activists displayed hoardings with these numbers in prominent localities, setting a target of sending over one lakh anti-toll text messages to the CM.

Fadnavis’s woes were further compounded with a prominent Marathi daily publishing these numbers along with a story regarding the unique anti-toll protest. Not amused by the mode of protest, sources said the CM’s office made its displeasure known to the toll activists and the publishing house.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had also faced a similar protest following his decision to continue with the local body tax. Activists from Kolhapur were also involved then. However, the mobile number shared then was that of a senior official in the CMO and not Chavan’s.