Ghar wapsi for CONG-NCP turncoats?

MUMBAI : The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) poll losses in the three Hindi heartland states may cost it in Maharashtra, with several Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) rebels, who had joined the party ahead of 2014 polls, likely to consider returning to their parent parties. The poll results announced on Tuesday led to a buzz about potential political crossovers ahead of 2019 polls.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that “ghar wapsi” was on the cards, with the poll results pointing to a reversal of fortunes for the BJP.

“Many Congress and NCP party leaders, who were ideologically with us, had quit the parties to join BJP in 2014 because they felt that there was now little scope for the Congress and NCP to recover. We are in talks with several such leaders. A ghar wapsi of sorts is on the cards in the days ahead in the state,” said Pawar.

While Pawar did not indicate a number or take names of such leaders, another senior NCP functionary said the party held talks with 10-12 leaders, but said it was too early to spell out names of those willing to join back the NCP.

As many as a dozen sitting legislators of the Congress and NCP, including three ministers, had joined the BJP ahead of 2014 polls. Several other former legislators, regional satraps or their kin had also overnight switched their loyalty to the saffron camp. Those who had joined the BJP from the Congress-ncp camp include former ministers Dr Vijay Gavit, Babanrao Pachpute, Sanjay Deotale, besides MLAS namely Laxman Jagtap, Kisan Kathore, Sanjay Sawkare, Prashant Thakur, Sunil Deshmukh, Manda Mhatre, Mahesh Landge, Shivaji Kardile, among others. At least four sitting BJP MPS namely Heena Gavit, Kapil Patil, Rajendra Gavit, Sanjay Patil are candidates, who had defected from the Congress or NCP. A few like Uday Samant joined the Shiv Sena. Among these one MP and five MLAS spoke to their old parties about a possible comeback. So far, one former BJP MP and one BJP MLA, both former Congress rebels, Nana Patole and Ashish Deshmukh quit the BJP to join the Congress back. BJP also lost one Patole’s Lok Sabha seat after NCP won the bypolls earlier this year.

A BJP leader admitted defections from the party, especially by latecomers, were possible ahead of polls.

But he said such crossovers would be rampant next year from both the sides.

“The reason we had to give nomination to outsiders (58) in 2014 was that our alliance with the Sena broke at the last minute. We had to contest as many as 257 seats, but we didn’t have candidates or much presence in nearly 70 seats,” said the BJP leader, adding. “With alliance with Sena likely, many of these candidates, may have to scramble for nomination.”

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, “The political reality in Maharashtra is very different from the three states. Currently, no other party is in a better position to win than BJP, so there is no likelihood of such defections. Instead some more leaders from the opposition camp are likely to join the BJP.’’