Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls in October this year, the BJP has gone in for the kill in consolidating its base by roping in leaders and functionaries from the Congress and the NCP, a trend that has unnerved the two major Opposition partiesin the State.
Amid speculation that he and some other leaders from the NCP might join the BJP later this week, seven-time MLA Kalidas Kolambkar on Monday resigned both from the primary membership of the Congress and his Assembly membership.
Kolambkar, who represents the Wadala constituency in south-central Mumbai, had been elected to the State Assembly five times on a Shiv Sena ticket. Once a staunch supporter of former chief minister Narayan Rane, had been in regular touch with Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP for more than a year now.
At a function to be held on Wednesday, Kolambkar, NCP’s MLA Vaibhav Pichhad, former minister Ganesh Naik and state party’s women president Chitra Wagh are likely to join the BJP. As many as 52 NCP corporators from the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) will also switch to the NCP at the same function.
Vaibhav Pichad, who represents Akole Assembly constituency from Ahmednagar district, is the son of NCP’s former president and close aide of Pawar. It remains to be seen if Sr Pichad will also join the BJP. Chitra Wagh had on Friday resigned from her position as the State NCP women president and was replaced by Rupali Chakankar on Saturday.
The names of three Congress MLAs Jaykumar Bhagwanrao Gore, Sunil Chhatrapal Kedar and Gopaldas Shankarlal Agrawal are also making round as persons who may join the BJP in the coming days.
The BJP’s eagerness to rope in as many as MLAs from the Opposition parties should be seen in the context of a claim made by Senior BJP leader and Maharashtra Water Resources Minister, Girish Mahajan on Sunday that 50 MLAs from the Congress and NCP were in touch with his party leaders and would switch over to his party ahead of the State Assembly polls.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s son Dr Sujay Vikhe-Patil and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil – son of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP and former Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil had joined the BJP. After the elections, former leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil of the Congress was inducted into the State Cabinet by Fadnavis.
The BJP’s ally Shiv Sena is no different when it comes to enrolling leaders from the Opposition parties. On Thursday last, the Sena landed a major catch, when it inducted the NCP’s Mumbai unit president Sachin Ahir into its fold. Earlier on May 22, NCP’s former minister Jaydutta Kshirsagar had joined the Sena. Kshirsagar was subsequently inducted into the Maharashtra Cabinet, when chief minister Devendra Fadnavis expanded his Cabinet on June 16, 2019.
The anxiety within the NCP about the BJP’s efforts to poach its party functionaries can be evidenced from the accusation made by NCP Sharad Pawar in Pune on Sunday that the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance was misusing the agencies like the ACB, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and CBI to mount pressure on members of the Opposition parties to switch sides. Dubbing the poaching indulged in by the BJP as an “attack on Parliamentary democracy”, Pawar charged that the BJP was forcing the NCP leaders to switch political loyalties by threatening them with legal action.
Rebutting Pawar’s charge that the BJP was “misusing” probe agencies to force the Opposition party leaders to join the BJP, Fadnavis contended the Congress and NCP legislators were joining his party on their own. He said that the BJP was selective in welcoming the Opposition party leaders to its fold and it was not giving entry to such opposition leaders who were facing enquiries from the ED or other probe agencies.
On his part, Maharashtra’s former chief minister and state Congress president Ashok had also gone on record last month alleging that Fadnavis was calling the Congress legislators and enticing them to join the BJP ahead of the State Assembly polls.
Going by the manner in which the BJP is poaching the leaders from the Opposition Congress and NCP, there will be a lot of churn in Maharashtra politics ahead of the State Assembly polls.