Within days after the ruling Democratic Front (DF) partners poached two of the sitting Shiv Sena MPs to their fold, Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde disclosed on Sunday night that he planned to woo two senior NCP leaders into Opposition grand alliance's fold within next one week.
Addressing a public rally of Opposition’s ‘Maha-Yuti’ (grand alliance) at Dombivli in Thane district, Munde referring to the shifting of loyalties of two sitting Sena MPs Bhausaheb Wakchaure and Ganesh Dudhgaonkar during the past one week said, “Now that they weaned away two our sitting MPs, I promise you that we will bring two senior NCP leaders to the ‘Maha-Yuti’ during the next one week”.
While Wakchaure, a sitting MP from Shirdi, last week resigned from the Shiv Sena and joined the Congress, another sitting MP from Purbhani Dudhgaonkar walked out of the Sena and joined the NCP on Saturday. The Congress and NCP are contemplating fielding Wakchaure and Dudhgaonkar as its candidates for the lS polls from Shirdi and Parbhani constituencies respectively.
Coming down heavily on the ruling Congress and NCP for its failures on various fronts, Munde charged that the DF Government had turned Maharashtra into Bihar in terms of mafia raj, the financial status of the State had come under unprecedented strain.
Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and RPI(A) chief Ramdas Athavale also criticised the poor performance of the DF regime during the last 10 years.
“Maharashtra has become gunda raj like Bihar,” Munde said, as held State Home Minister RR Patil squarely responsible for the worsening law and order situation in Maharashtra.
Alluding to the massive fire in Mantralaya (state secretariat) on Junbe 21, 2012, Munde said: “The fire was not a mishap. But the one engineered by the ruling DF functionaries themselves. When Maha-Yuti comes to power in the state, we will throw all those saboteurs behind the bars”.
Singling out deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar of the NCP for a vicious attack, Munde said: “There is a massive scam in the energy ministry held by Ajit Pawar. My party will demand an SIT probe into the power scam, in the budget session of the state legistlature beginning tomorrow,” he said.
“So bad is the fiscal position of Maharashtrea can be evidenced from the fact that the State’s debts have mounted to a staggering 2.75 lakh crore from Rs 75,000 crore during the Sena-BJP regime in the nineties,” he said.
Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and RPI(A) chief Ramdas Athavale, who also addressed the rally, were extremely critical of the poor performance of the DF government during the last 10 years and style of functioning of current chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.
Sunday’s was the third public rally of “Maha-Yuti” ever since the five constituents of the Opposition grand alliance --Shiv Sena, BJP, RPI (A), Raju Shetty-led SSS and the Mahadeo Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha – launched their campaign for the forthcoming lok Sabha polls. The grand alliance had held its earlier rallies at Ichalkaranji and Beed.