Former VBA leader Gopichand Padalkar and NCP’s Namita Mundada has officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday
Mumbai: As Maharashtra election approaches next month many prominent leaders from NCP and Congress have already resigned and left the party with tapers. Many have preferred to join BJP and ShivSena. Two more leaders have joined BJP in the upcoming election in the state of Maharashtra.
Former VBA leader Gopichand Padalkar and NCP’s Namita Mundada has officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday. Padalkar has secured a ticket from Baramati in the upcoming Maharastra Assembly elections on October 21.
Gopichand Padalkar will contest elections against Sharad Pawar’s nephew and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar from the Baramati seat.
This development is a major setback for Prakash Ambedkar’s party Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), in which Padalkar was a core leader. Padalkar officially switched to the BJP today in Mumbai, presence of CM Devendra Fadnavis.
While Baramati is the Pawar family’s home turf in Maharashtra, BJP’s last-minute decision to field Padalkar makes the equation harder for Ajit Pawar.
Padalkar is likely to get support from the Dhangar community and is a young leader with powerful oratory skills. Earlier this year, he also bagged over three lakh votes when he contested in the2019 Lok Sabha elections.
After joining BJP, Padalkar said, “There is no difference between me and VBA or Prakash Ambedkar. I am making this very clear. However, for my people, BJP is doing many things. For the betterment of the state, we should all support BJP. For our community, CM Devendra Fadnavis has accepted all demands.”
Weeks after NCP chief Sharad Pawar announced that Namita Mundada the party candidate from Beed, but on Monday in the presence of Pankaja Munde, she joined BJP.
A few days back NCP chief Sharad Pawar had himself announced Namita Mundada’s name as the party’s official candidate from Kaij in Beed earlier this month.
Mundada resigned from the NCP following which she was inducted into the saffron party BJP in Beed district in the presence of Lok Sabha member Pritam Munde and state minister Pankaja Munde.
Namita’s mother-in-law Vimal Mundada was a former state minister from the NCP.
Earlier this month Namita Mundada was declared as the NCP’s candidate from Kaij Assembly constituency in Beed for the Assembly elections, scheduled to be held on October 21.
In 2014 state polls, Namita lost to BJP’s Sangeeta Thombre from the Kaij seat.
Certainly, this year many leaders from Congress and NCP have joined BJP so that they could seek tickets and also be part of the Government.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
