Sulking NCP, Congress strongmen defecting to BJP?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra could soon see an influx of top leaders from the Opposition parties. Sources claimed that Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) may be the worst hit — at least four of its key leaders from across Maharashtra are reportedly in talks with the BJP.

These leaders are Ganesh Naik, the Navi Mumbai strong- former ministers Jaydutt Kshirsagar and Suresh Dhas from Beed, and former state NCP president Bhaskar Jadhav from Ratnagiri. And then there are rumours about the Congress strongman from Sindhudurg, Narayan Rane, also joining the BJP.

Winning over these leaders, who have a strong support base in their respective areas, could help the BJP win a few more assembly seats in 2019 when the party is likely to face a Congress-ncp alli- ance as well as the Shiv Sena as opponents.

Though all these leaders have been denying any such possibility, their differences with the state leadership of their respective parties and uncertain prospects in the 2019 assembly elections seem to be the reasons behind their plans to hop on to the BJP bandwagon.

However, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik rubbished the speculations of mass desertions from the party before the 2019 assemman, bly election. He said, “The rumours about these leaders quitting the party have been there for quite some time, but there is no substance in them.”

However, it is no secret that Ganesh Naik is reaching out to both the Sena and the BJP.

Speculations are rife that the Naiks are now eyeing the BJP, as the party and its saffron ally, the Sena, are likely to contest the 2019 elections separately.

Similarly, two key NCP leaders in Beed, Kshirsagar and Dhas, are keen on joining the BJP.

Dhas had recently helped the BJP to place its president in the district council by making his supporters vote in favour of the saffron candidate.

MLA Kshirsagar, who belongs to the Teli community, has close ties with several BJP leaders, including power minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Wardha MP Ramdas Tadas, as they belong to the same community.

Party sources said NCP’S Guhagar MLA Bhaskar Jadhav, who shares a strained relation with the party’s state unit chief Sunil Tatkare, is also in talks with the BJP leadership.

Meanwhile, speculations that Congress leader Narayan Rane may join the BJP once again surfaced on Sunday after tourism minster Jaykumar Rawal met him at his residence in Sindhudurg. Party sources, however, claimed the meeting was related to a tourism project in the region, which Rane has been against.