Four Maha mins join BJP’S nationwide rally
MUMBAI: Four union ministers from Maharashtra joined the Bharatiya Janata Party’s nationwide Jan Ashirwad Yatra across 22 states, which began on Monday. Ahead of the forthcoming local body elections, the Maharashtra unit of the party is looking at it as an opportunity to take the central schemes to people and “expose” the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government, led by Uddhav Thackeray, over its “failures on various fronts”.
Elections to 22 municipal corporations, 24 district councils and several tehsil level bodies in Maharashtra are due in the next six months. With more than two-third local bodies gearing up for the polls, which are considered to be the mini assembly polls, the power battle in Maharashtra is expected to heat up in the next few months. The BJP is facing a staunch political opposition after three parties – the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress – joined hands against it in 2019 to form the government. The ruling parties are likely to pose a strong challenge before the BJP, which controls the highest number of local bodies in urban as well rural parts.
Of the 36 new faces inducted in the Modi government as part of cabinet reshuffle on July 7, four were from Maharashtra. Besides former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, who was inducted as MSME minister, Rajya Sabha MP Dr Bhagwat Karad and MPS Kapil Patil and Dr Bharti Pawar were inducted as ministers of state. The ministers of state began their yatra on Monday, while Rane will join on August 19 as per the programme chalked out by party’s central leadership.
Dr Karad, minister of state for finance, kicked off his yatra by visiting Vaidyanath temple in
Parli in Beed, followed by the flagging of the yatra at Gopinath Gad in the presence of party’s national secretary Pankaja Munde. The presence of Munde is assumed to be significant, as Mundes were said to be upset about PM Narendra Modi’s decision of picking Karad over Pritam Munde, Beed MP and Pankaja’s younger sister, in the cabinet. Karad is seen as a prominent OBC leader. The discontent among the Munde supporters was witnessed during the inaugural function of the yatra. Pankaja’s supporters raised slogans praising her, indirectly indicating that they do not accept any other (Karad’s) leadership. Munde had to intervene and stopped them from doing so.
Karad will visit six districts of Marathwada during his yatra till August 21.
Kapil Patil, minister of state for Panchayati Raj, is scheduled to hold meetings, get-togethers with party workers and visit Covid centres in parts of Thane, Kalyan-dombivli, Navi Mumbai and rural parts, including Shahad,
Titwala of the districts by concluding in Bhiwandi city. Party MLAS and former ministers, including Sanjay Kelkar, Ravindra Chavan, Niranjan Davkhare, are accompanying him.
Dr Bharti Pawar, union minister of state for public health and a tribal leader, has been asked to focus on the tribal-dominated areas of Palghar and Nashik. Dr Pawar took a dig at the state over poor health care services in Palghar. “The Central government released ₹70 crore and number of ventilators for Maharashtra, but it is surprising not a single equipment has reached Palghar. The Centre gave ₹23,000 crore to various states to fight against Covid-19 pandemic. We are taking stock of the implementation of the central schemes in the state, but the approach of the state machinery is indifferent,” she said, during the yatra.
Rane, who is considered an ardent critic of the Shiv Sena and its leadership, will begin his yatra in Mumbai on August 19 and conclude it in Sindhudurg on August 26. After first two days in Mumbai, Rane will visit, Vasai-virar on Saturday and parts of Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.
According to a senior BJP leader, the yatra could be an opportunity to strengthen the base in the districts these ministers are travelling in, keeping the local body elections in mind. “Rane will visit parts of Konkan, while Kapil Patil is in Thane where we are eyeing the corporation and district council elections. Similarly, key Marathwada leaders, including Pankaja, of the party are participating in the yatra,” said a Marathwada leader, requesting anonymity.
Maharashtra BJP’S vice-president Madhav Bhandari said the main focus of the yatra was to take the Central government’s programmes and schemes to common man.
“The yatra is an outreach programme to take the Centre’s schemes to the people. We will not talk about the state government’s functioning or its failures,” he said.