Mumbai | Political parties in Maharashtra have begun to strategise ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections. Leaders have begun to switch from one political ideology to other in order to achieve a better opportunity. But the party which has been affected the most by the transfer of politicians is the Sharad Pawar led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
On Thursday, former MoS in the Maharashtra government and party’s Mumbai unit chief Sachin Ahir joined Shiv Sena. Ahir who joined Sena in presence of Uddhav Thackeray said that NCP supremo Sharad Pawarhttps://twitter.com/PawarSpeaks is still in his heart but now he has the strength of Thackerays.
Sachin Ahir, a 3 time MLA from Mumbai is not the first NCP leader who has switched his ideology. Before Ahir, Beed MLA Jaydutt Kshirsagar, Shahapur MLA Pandurag Barora and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil have switched to rival camps in the last two months.
Jaydutt Kshirsagr, an MLA from Beed had joined Shiv Sena on May 22 from the NCP claiming that the party has not treated seniors well. Submitting his resignation Kshirsagar had said,” There are many reasons to quit the party and I do not want to blame anyone. But the party should have had treat seniors with respect.”
After Kshirsagar, NCP MLA from Shahapur, Pandurag Barora also joined Shiv Sena in July. Barora was a loyal supporter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his father a 4 time MLA from Shahapur shared close related with Pawar. He was upset with the party since Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in Shahapur.
Along with joining Shiv Sena, BJP is also a favorite spot for NCP leaders. Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, son of NCP MP Vijayshinh Mohite-Patil, joined BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election over his dispute with the party leaders. Mohite-Patil was the prime candidate to contest from Madha Lok Sabha constituency after Ajit Pawar denied contesting from the seat. But the NCP rather contested Parth Pawar, son of Ajit Pawar in place of Mohite-Patil.
Expressing his anger on a facebook post-Patil had written, “Your decision will be my decision, tell me what to do… Ought we merely to sit silent, keep tolerating or should we hit back for the sake of our future, progress and development?”
With assembly election on the edge, the absence of these MLAs will affect the NCP who currently trying to revive itself from the loss of the 2014 assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha election defeats. NCP currently has only 32 MLAs in the 288 seat Maharashtra Assembly while it managed to win just 4 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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