MUMBAI: In this election year, the BJP is still continuing to acquire winnable candidates to expand its base by poaching Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders. Ganesh Naik, a big shot from Navi Mumbai, is all set to join the BJP with all 52 NCP corporators on Wednesday. MLA Kalidas Kolambkar is also set to join the BJP along with Naik.
BJP State President Chandrakant Patil had indicated on his first day after taking charge as BJP State President that many leaders from Congress and NCP are willing to join the BJP. On Monday, he said that there is a big ceremony on Wednesday morning at Garware Pavilion in Mumbai where all the aspirants will join the party. “The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is trying to win all 288 seats in the Assembly polls and want to strengthen the party. We are allowing leaders to abolish their ideology of dynasty and join us,” said Patil.
However, NCP leaders Madhukar Pichad, Vaibhav Pichad, Ganesh Naik and former minister and Congress MLA Kalidas Kolambkar may join the BJP on Tuesday.
NCP Mumbai Chief Sachin Ahir joined Shiv Sena recently and soon after that, NCP Woman Wing State Chief Chitra Wagh also left the party and joined the BJP.
NCP legislators Vaibhav Pichad and Jyoti Kalani are also set to join BJP on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is going on a yatra from Thursday (August 1). During the first phase of the yatra in Vidarbha, Marathwada and North Maharashtra, these leaders will join the CM in their districts.
Kolambkar, a close aide of former CM Narayan Rane, resigned from Congress on Monday. Kolambkar is a seven-time MLA currently representing Wadala constituency. Kolambkar, one of the longest-serving MLAs, was among the Congress candidates who withstood the Modi wave in 2014 and got elected, though on a slender margin of 800 votes, defeating BJP’s Mihir Kotecha.
He was known to be a loyal Shiv Sainik and earlier, was elected five times as a Shiv Sena MLA. He left the party soon after Rane, who bid adieu to Shiv Sena in 2005. Rane resigned as Congress MLC in September 2017 and floated his own outfit Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha. However, Kolambkar preferred to stay put in Congress.
On Monday, NCP leader Sandeep Naik called a meeting of 52 NCP corporators in Navi Mumbai where the corporators showed interest in joining the BJP. According to the sources, the agenda of the meeting was to join BJP.
“The corporators asked their leader to join the BJP or allow them to quit NCP,” the source said. Due to pressure from all corporators, Naik will be joining the BJP as he could not say no to the corporators. Ex-minister Ganesh Naik has been a big shot in Navi Mumbai since the formation of Navi Mumbai.
For more than two decades, Naik has been dominating the politics of Navi Mumbai. He was made a Shiv Sena group leader in the Assembly after Bhujbal defected to the Congress.
A resourceful and influential leader, Naik was seen as a chief ministerial contender in the run-up to 1995 elections. Even though he was made a minister, Naik was given less influential departments. In 1998, he had differences with then Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. He floated his separate outfit and contested the 1999 Assembly polls but lost the seat. He then joined the NCP and returned to State cabinet as a minister after 2004 elections. He remained a minister till 2014 and also retained his hold over Navi Mumbai civic body. However, things seem to be changing now. He doesn’t see any future with the NCP and has decided to join the BJP.
MLA Dilip Sopal from Barshi has also said that he will contest on a BJP ticket in the forthcoming Assembly elections. MLA Baban Shinde from Madha, Shivendraraje Bhosale, Sangram Jagtap (Ahmednagar), Rahul Jagtap (Shrogonda) and NCP leader Rana Jagjitsingh Patil from Osmanabad are also set to join the BJP.
The ones who defected
The leaders who have left the NCP in recent years are Jaydutt Kshirsagar, Vijaysingh Mohite Patil, Suresh Dhas, Narendra Patil, Prashant Paricharak, Prasad Lad, Laxman Jagtap, Babasaheb Deshmukh, Babanrao Pachpute, Vijaykumar Gavit, Sanjay Savkare, Laxman Dhobale, Vinay Kore, Kapil Patil (Kalyan), Kisan Kathore (Murbad), Rahul Kul (Mohol), Nivedita Mane and Shivaji Kardile.
