With Lok Sabha elections likely in April-May next year, the BJP has started reviewing and planning a roadmap for all 48 Lok Sabha seats. In the first phase, the party will cover 28 constituencies in the next two months. During a constituency review meeting in Nagpur, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule called Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president and founder Sharad Pawar a seasoned and experienced leader who can play an important role in making 21st century India.
Sharad Pawar’s NCP is part of the Opposition, in which Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress are allies. According to Bawankule, the differences within the NCP are short-lived, as state NCP chief Jayant Patil recently said that both he and Ajit Pawar are both Sharad Pawar’s karyakarta. Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, along with over 40 MLAs, has joined the BJP-led coalition in Maharashtra on the plot planned by Sharad Pawar. Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar held rallies in the constituencies of NCP leaders who had defected to the opposing NCP faction led by his nephew, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
Bawankule remarked and made his point, stating that the BJP is a pan-Indian party with a public mandate. “Everyone in the BJP works around the clock for the public good. Our party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, works 24×7. To be accepted as a leader, one has to lead by example. It requires 18 out of 24 hours of hard work. You don’t fight sitting at home,” he emphasized.
Taking a dig at Uddhav Thackeray, who has vowed to fight and finish the BJP, Bawankule said that Thackeray will be left with just four to five leaders to share the dais by 2024. “Even as the chief minister of Maharashtra, he could not prevent a split in his organization. The majority of his MLAs and MPs walked out of the parent party right under his nose. He failed to stop them. Even those remaining under him will slowly leave.”
During his visit, Bawankule reviewed the pre-poll preparations in Nagpur, Bhandara, and Gondia Lok Sabha constituencies.
