NARENDRA SASTRY
MUMBAI, AUGUST 29— In the ongoing race between the ruling saffron alliance partners to poach legislators from the Opposition NCP and Congress, the BJP has sought to steal march over its ally Shiv Sena, by claiming that as many as 17 Opposition MLAs are waiting in the wings to join its fold ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls to be held in October this year.
Making a claim to this effect, BJP’s former Maharashtra president and Union Minister of State Raosaheb Danve said in his home town of Jalna in Marathwada region on Tuesday that of the 15 MLAs expected to switch sides in the coming weeks, four MLAs would join his party by August 31.
Given the manner in which a large number of elected representatives of the Congress and NCP have joined both the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena in recent weeks, one is not surprised if Danve’s claim turns out to be true.
Upset with the manner in which the ruling saffron partners have been aggressively poaching their legislators, the Opposition NCP and Congress have alleged that the ruling BJP has been “misusing” various central investigation agencies to blackmail the Opposition MLAs into joining the principal ruling party. So much so that leader of the Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress on Thursday made a sensational claim recently that he had received 25 telephonic calls from Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him to join the Sena and BJP respectively.
The saffron alliance partners’ strategy behind roping in the Opposition party MLAs ahead of the State Assembly is that they want to increase their seat tally in the 2019 elections, by fielding these sitting MLAs who have switched sides recently. “Since the sitting MLAs who are joining out party have considerable goodwill in their respective constituencies, it is easier to ensure their re-election than fielding our own candidates from these constituencies,” a senior BJP leader said.
In fact, the poaching game began in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Ahead of the LS 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 on June 16.
After the Lok Sabha polls, the NCP’s three sitting MLAs Shivrajendra Bhosale (Satara), Vaibhav Pichad (Akole in Ahmednagar district) and Sandeep Naik (Airoli in Navi Mumbai) and Congress’ sitting MLA Kalidas Kolumbar (Wadala in south-central Mumbai) joined the BJP on July 31, 2019.
Apart from four sitting Opposition MLAs, NCP’s former state NCP president and Sharad Pawar’s erstwhile confidant Madhukar Pichad, Navi Mumbai’s former Mayor Sagar Naik, NCP’s former NCP women president Chitra Wagh, retired IAS officer Sahebrao Patil and social reformer Mahatma Phule’s descendant Neeta Hole also joined the BJP simultaneously.
Things are no different on the Shiv Sena front. First, it was NCP’s former minister and once Pawar’s close-confidant Jaydutta Kshirsagar from Beed district in Marathwada who quit the NCP and joined the Shiv Sena on May 22, 2019. Later on July 10, sitting MLA from Shahpur Pandurang Barora quit the NCP and entered the Sena. Subsequently, NCP’s Mumbai unit president Sachin Ahir quit the party and joined the ruling Shiv Sena on July 25.
On August 16, former MLA Dhanraj Haribahu Mahale — who had quit the Shiv Sena and joined the Sharad Pawar-led party and contested the recent Lok Sabha polls from Dindori constituency — had returned to the Sena. The Sena might field him as its candidate from Dindori in the State Assembly polls.
The Shiv Sena got further boost August 21, as sitting Congress MLA Nirmala Gavit its fold in the presence of its president Uddhav Thackeray. Similarly, a sitting NCP MLA from Solapur Dilip Solapur resigned from his party and joined the Shiv Sena yesterday.
Interestingly, Danve’s claim about 15 Opposition MLAs joining the BJP has come after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ categorical assertion made on August 1 that “all vacancies had been filled in the BJP and there would be no fresh appointments in his party”. Fadnavis made the statement in the context of the criticism by the Opposition NCP and Congress that the BJP was trying to poach their elected representatives and leaders into its fold.
Available pointers suggest that both the BJP and Shiv Sena would use the newly joined sitting MLAs as a bargaining chip during negotiations for the seat-sharing in the State Assembly polls.
On his part, senior BJP leader and now State party president Chandrakant Patil had gone to town on June 2, saying that of the total 288 seats, the BJP and Shiv Sena would contest 135 seats each in the State Assembly polls, setting aside the remaining 18 seats for their allies.
However, Fadnavis has of late been indicating that there would not be equal sharing of seats between the BJP and Shiv Sena for the Assembly. He has said that the Shiv Sena – which had won 63 seats as against 122 seats bagged by the BJP in the 2014 Assembly polls – would have to settle down for lesser number of seats in the State Assembly polls.
Both the parties would use the new entrants – in the form of sitting MLAs and other senior opposition leaders – as an indicator of their respective increased strengths and the likelihood of all these sitting MLAs getting re-elected in the 2019 Assembly polls.
Both the saffron alliance partners are desperately trying to increase their respective tallies in the 2019 polls. No wonder the poaching has become a norm for both the parties.
