Kalavati Bandurkar, the face of farm widows in Vidarbha, may have filed her nomination as a Swatantra Bharat Paksha (SBP) candidate from Wani today, but her daughter Anita has claimed she is likely to withdraw.

Ever since her entry into politics was announced, Kalavati’s conduct has been defined by a series of flip-flops. Even today, there were reports that she wouldn’t contest as she had chest pain, but she eventually appeared before the Returning Officer of Wani around 12 pm to file her papers. She was accompanied by her political mentor Kishore Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, a socio-political outfit operating from Pandharkawada.

To ensure that his “farm widow” agenda doesn’t flop even if Kalavati does another about-turn, Tiwari brought another farm widow Babitai Bais from Hivra village in the Zari tahsil of the district to file her papers too.

“Yesterday evening Kalavati was given the Marathi translation of Sulabh International chief Bindeshwari Pathak’s letter advising her to stay away from politics and she was perturbed. Her sons-in-law are pressuring her to withdraw. She has also been mobbed by the media for interviews. All this has taken its toll. Yesterday, she complained of a health problem. She was admitted to the District Hospital in Pandharkawada where her ECG indicated a problem. So, she was taken to Yavatmal in the morning. Now she is in her Jalka village,” Tiwari told The Indian Express. “But I have told her she is free to withdraw,” he added.

Kalavati’s daughter, however, appears to be certain that her mother will backtrack. “All of us in the family are against her contesting elections. Some people have given her wrong ideas about it and she has got misled. Now, she has also realised that it’s not in our interest and we have decided to withdraw,” Anita Bandurkar told The Indian Express on phone.