nagpur the city once again came out enthusiastically to support the cause of peace the third international marathon jointly arranged by world nonviolence day organization committee and the maratha lancers club was a huge success as it saw participation of around 60 foreign and scores of indian athletes in the full and half marathons while thousands took part in symbolic ahimsa runit was neither a political event nor a commercial one yet people in thousands got on to the streets before dawn on a chilly morning leaving the warm comfort of their home on a sunday that is otherwise reserved for lazing off man behind the marathon and chief organizer vilas muttemwar believes its all for the love of gandhi and sportsthe very idea of organising this event annually on gandhi jayanti is to spread the message of bapu among the young generation when barrack obama can proudly proclaim that he draws inspiration from mahatma gandhi it saddens me that bapus ideals are being forgotten in the land of his birth said muttemwar i am confident now that nagpur will show the way to reviving the gandhian philosophy he addedpleased with the hattrick success of the marathon however muttemwar asserts that politics had no role in organizing the event i feel fortunate that so many different agencies sports organizations police government departments join hands to make this event possible people in lakhs come out to cheer the runners all through route it is all spontaneous i am doing this for the city with no thought of any political gain for myself or the party says muttemwara fitlooking chief minister prithviraj chavan sporting a black tshirt was all praise for muttemwar for organising the marathon such events go a long way in spreading gandhijis message he said he was especially present for flagging off the marathon and made it a point to reach the city the night before in order to attend the early morning function muttemwar may deny any political motive but the presence of chavan and also union ministers vilasrao deshmukh mukul wasnik guardian minister shivajirao moghe egs minister and north nagpur mla nitin raut aicc secretary and rajya sabha member avinash pande at the flag off was seen as a fresh advantage for the city mpit is well known that that in the first and the second year of the marathon all political leaders kept away from the event with so many leaders though all from congress lending support the marathon unwittingly became a one party affair except for mayor archana dehankar who is from the bjp none other from her party was seen near the venue