KCR demands Bharat Ratna for social reformer Sathe, says will write to PM

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday said he will write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, on noted Marathi poet and social reformer Annabhau Sathe. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party chief, who visited Sathe's memorial at Wategaon in Sangli district of Maharashtra earlier in the day, said the Telangana government will be writing to the Centre on the issue.

He asked the Maharashtra government to also write to the Centre to accord the highest honour to Sathe, who was born on August 1, 1920 and died on July 18, 1969.

Rao, popularly known as KCR, paid respects at the memorial of Sathe at Wategaon, the birthplace of the legendary poet. Sathe hailed from the backward Matang community and rose to become a powerful voice of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement that sought a separate state for Marathi-speaking people. He wrote poems, and songs attacking societal ills. Sathe is deeply revered among Dalits and other sections. Rao, after concluding his Sangli tour, paid a visit to the Ambabai Temple in Kolhapur.

Meanwhile, farmer leader Raghunath Dada Patil, who is associated with the Shetkari Sanghtana outfit, joined the BRS on Tuesday, said Manik Kadam, a leader of Rao's party in Kolhapur.

Rao is trying to spread his party's base in Maharashtra. As part of the BRS expansion plan, the Telangana Chief Minister visited Solapur last month.