MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party’s Lok Sabha member from Satara Chhatrapati Udayan Raje Bhosale joined the BJP at union Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence in Delhi on Saturday. The development represented the peak of what several other leaders in the state have done over the past year – switching loyalties.
Most of them have said that their concern for the people has led them to take the step. But, a careful analysis shows that it is actually the concern for their own fiefdom.
Records from Maharashtra legislature show that 22 members, from both the houses, have resigned over past year. Eleven of them are from the NCP and 9 from the Congress.
There are also others – past ministers, past MPs, members of local bodies, leaders of party cells. Everyone has their own reason for the decision.In case of Udayanraje, the thirteenth direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the case might be a bit different.
He was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 1995-99 but had always maintained that which party he identifies himself with doesn’t matter.
“BJP, Shiv Sena, RPI, Congress, NCP, whoever, I don’t care. I am the high command here. Let them ignore me, if they have the guts,” he had said last year. Yet, now the “pressure from the people to side with Modi,” is his reason for switching the party.
“Though there are several cases and controversies involving him that is unlikely to be his reason for switching over to the BJP,” said Sambhaji Deshmukh, one of his supporters from Satara.
But, that is not the case with all others. Padmasinh Patil from Osmanabad, former minister and close relative of Sharad Pawar, has a murder case pending against him.
Also, the BJP-Sena’s increasing power in the district has forced him to join BJP in hope to save his son Rana Jagjeet Singh’s political future. He, however, maintains that he joined BJP “to pursue the development agenda”.
Ganesh Naik’s case is not different in Navi Mumbai. He had a challenge to maintain his power in the Municipal Corporation. “We had told dada (Naik) to switch over to BJP in 2014.
But, he didn’t listen. As a result, his son lost Lok Sabha election and he lost Assembly polls. Now, that he realised that if he doesn’t join BJP he will not even be able to maintain power in the corporation,” said Ram Vichare, a contractor and aide of Naik.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s politics of lending support to opponents of his satraps to keep them busy in their own areas appears to have made the self-goal. The cases of Congress leaders Harshwardhan Patil from Indapur in Pune district or Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil in Ahmednagar district fall under this category.
In case of several others, whose politics always revolved around a strong pole in state politics, the weak opposition left them with no option but to switch to the ruling side.
“Why should we take the load? Ultimately we too have to survive,” said a prominent Congress leader on condition of anonymity.