Lokmanya kin wants your vote

Rohit Tilak (30), Bal Gangadhar's great grandson and Congress candidate from Kasba, will woo voters with Smses and padyatras.

Lokmanya kin wants your vote

Rohit Tilak (30), Bal Gangadhar's great grandson and Congress candidate from Kasba, will woo voters with Smses and padyatras.

He has a powerful last name, but wants to create his own identity. Rohit Tilak, great grandson of freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and grandson of late speaker of the state Assembly Jayantrao Tilak, wants to be a people's person. The 30-year-old who will contest the forthcoming Assembly elections on a Congress ticket from the Kasba constituency filed his nomination papers yesterday.

"I will concentrate on reaching out to people with my padyatras," Rohit told MiD DAY. He added that he will appeal to his voters via SMS a medium he successfully used to spread awareness about swine flu during Ganpati.

Confident
Though his constituency is a BJP stronghold, Rohit is confident of a good show. "I feel people need change and have faith in development. I oppose communalism and will work towards creating opportunities in the IT sector in my constituency that comprises talented youngsters," explained Rohit while showing no apprehensions of competing against third time BJP MLA Grish Bapat.

His confidence does not come from arrogance. Rohit was actively involved at the grassroots level as president of the National Students' Union of India since 2004. He has also been an active member of the Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi (Aaks) programme floated by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to ensure participation of the youth at the grassroot level.

"After travelling across the length and breadth of the nation and understanding the issues affecting the common man, I was made the Madhya Pradesh national coordinator for Aaks by Rahul Gandhi."

Star power
In fact, Rahul will campaign for Rohit in Pune along with bigwigs like Ashok Chavan, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh.

Fitness freak
Though politics takes most of his time, Rohit is an exercise freak and has a second dan black belt in Judo. He does not have a fascination for bikes and sports cars but sports a Pajero. He says he is not a bookworm, but keeps himself updated about events in the country by reading all newspapers. Rohit says he is not registered on Facebook, Orkut or Twitter because, "There is no need for additional chatting. I am surrounded by people always."