The Shiv Sena suffered yet another desertion from its ranks, as its senior functionary and Sena’s face in the English electronic media Rahul Narvekar resigned from the party and joined the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, which swiftly nominated him as its candidate for the lok Sabha polls from Maval constituency.
A week after the Shiv Sena’s sitting MP from Maval constituency Gajanan Babar resigned from the party after the Sena leadership denied him re-nomination to contest the polls from the same constituency, Narvekar put in his papers and joined the NCP at a Press conference addressed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar here on Monday.
Narvekar is the fifth Sena functionary to quit the party in the run-up to the lok Sabha polls, While Babar walked out of the Sena last week, the party’s two sitting MPs Bhausaheb Wakchaure (from Shirdi) and Ganesh Dudhgaonkar (Parbhani), resigned from the party and joined the ruling Congress and NCP respectively. Subsequently, Sena’s youth wing leader Abjit Panse resigned from the party and joined the Raj Thackeray-led MNS, which has nominated him as its candidate from Thane constituency.
Narvekar’s resignation from the Sena came after he withdrew his nomination from the State legislative Council polls last week, after his party’s senior leaders pressured him into pulling out of the electoral fray on the ground that the party did not have adequate numbers to get him elected.
Soon after he withdrew his papers from the Council poll fray, Narvekar opened a channel of interaction with NCP president Sharad Pawar, who not only welcomed the erstwhile Sena man into his party’s fold but also offered him Maval seat to the latter.
What made matters easy for Narvekar to seek entry to the party and get an instant nomination to contest the lS polls from Maval, is the fact that he is the son-in-law of NCP’s senior leader Ram Raje Nimbalkar, who belongs one of the royal families of Maharashtra.
Making no bones about his displeasure over the manner in which he was forced to withdraw from the State Council poll fray, Narvekar said that he was feeling suffocated within the Sena especially after learning that some party leaders were working hard to ensure his defeat in the State Council polls. “That’s why I withdrew my nomination from the Council poll,” Narvekar said, adding that he had met Sharad Pawar soon after he withdrew from the fray and explained the latter the problems that he was facing within the Sena.
Though the Sena does not stand to lose much electorally from Narvekar’s exist from its ranks, the party has indeed a lost of a good spokesperson, who used to put forth effectively party’s views in the English electronic media.