Defection in Indian Politics is not a new concept but the way BJP stuffing its party with all corrupts and tainted ministers is worth noticing. BJP has opened refuse-camp for political destitute under sponsorship of Modi and Shah. Anyone who has income tax, ED, CBI, state agencies, rivals, creditors, money lenders, Bhai, goons and press chasing, they have to just call 107, the BJP ambulance will rush for help and take them to the shelter. Here they will be given first aid and later political posts if they deserve or of any use to BJP or else they would be tamed and kept aside and as an immovable asset. Out of all those who left Congress-NCP, one is worth noticing and he is Shivendra Bhosale. He is descendent of second house of Shivaji. The one from first house is already with BJP. How will government change with these turncoats?
With just over a month left for the Maharashtra assembly polls, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will get top leaders from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to join the party. Former minister Harshvardhan Patil (Indapur, Pune) of the Congress and Navi Mumbai strongman Ganesh Naik of the NCP are the top names in the list who joined the BJP in presence of Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. Harshvardhan Patil’s exit is a big setback for the Congress as he has been a top leader of the party in the state. He has been an MLA four times from the Indapur Assembly seat in Pune district. Patil also has a record of serving as a minister in all state governments from 1995 to 2014.
In 1995, 1999 and 2004 he was elected as an Independent candidate, while in 2009 he contested on a Congress ticket. In 1995, he supported the Shiv Sena-BJP government and was also made a minister. Patil’s fight in local politics has always been against the NCP. In 2014, when the Congress and NCP broke ties, Harshvardhan Patil lost to NCP candidate Datta Bharane. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Patil patched up with the Pawars and supported Supriya Sule on the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.
He was upset with the NCP alleging that the party will not keep its word on helping him in the forthcoming assembly polls. Patil wants to contest from Indapur while the local NCP leaders are not willing to give away the seat. The Indapur constituency, however, is with the Shiv Sena. With Patil joining the BJP and wanting to contest from the constituency, the BJP will have to exchange the seat with ally Shiv Sena. Another big name joined the BJP is that of Navi Mumbai strongman Ganesh Naik. His son and Airoli MLA Sandeep already joined the BJP last month. The Naik family has ruled the satellite town of Navi Mumbai for years. Ganesh Naik has been a cabinet minister for 15 years holding important portfolios. Naik’s other son, Sanjeev was elected as an MP from Thane in 2009. Naik family supporters rule the cash-rich Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation. 55 corporators belonging to the NCP also joined BJP, bringing the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation under BJP rule. However, sitting BJP MLA from Navi Mumbai Manda Mhatre and Ganesh Naik do not see eye to eye and are sworn political enemies. The BJP state leadership may have to face some tough times in keeping the peace between the warring factions of Mhatre and Naiks.
Moreover, the image of Congress and NCP as ”corrupted political parties” still has not changed since senior leaders, one by one, was arrested by Govt Agencies at the Capital for the involvement, in corruption cases. Secondly, every Congressman knows the present status / position of the party after the recent Lok Sabha elections. And at the same time, they also realised about the strength and strategy of BJP / Modi Govt. which has been popular in the country and its developments / safety with corruption-free governance, in the last five years.
Recent arrests of Ex-FM Chidambaram by CBI and Ex-Minister D K Shivakumar by Enforcement Directorate, made many of the Congress leaders much feared and the role of Congress party in this matter, was zero. Particularly, many Congress leaders, appreciated the scrapping of Article 370, which provides special status for Jammu and Kashmir, by BJP government. Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, Janardan Dwivedi, Deepender Singh Hooda, Anil Shastri, Bhubaneshwar Kalita, Aditi Singh of late, senior leaders in Congress party like Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek Singhvi, Shashi Tharoor and Mani Shankar Aiyar started praising BJP / Modi government openly – for the country’s interest. The very recent controversial statements made by Congress leaders in the States of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Karnataka, made the Congress Chief confused as no one was ready to support the party. Previously, only people lost the hope on Congress and now its leaders. What it clearly indicates is that Congress has no near future in the present political scenario – and it is dying slowly.
The current developments indicate that many Congress leaders have lost hope and now they are not even talking about 2024. Now, most people believe that BJP government would at least be in power for 20 years. This is far more challenging for the Congress compared to their defeat in 2019. Leaders are demoralised and there is no strategy. Many of these leaders feel they have a brighter future in BJP than in Congress. Whenever people see there is more opportunity in the other party, they shift their base. As far as Congress People in BJP is concerned, there are numerous people who are in BJP now. S M Krishna, Former Union Minister. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Prime Women Face in UP, Satpal Maharaj, Uttarakhand MP (when in Congress), Vijay Bahuguna, Uttarakhand MP (when in Congress), Arvinder Singh Lovely, Former Delhi Congress President. Biren Singh, Chief Minister, Manipur was also a former Congress leader. Go to any state, there are good number of leaders who left their national and regional parties to join BJP. Now the question is that, how Congress and NCP will fill the vacated numbers.
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