Several legislators from the opposition Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress were in touch with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed the newly-appointed State unit president Chandrakant Patil on Thursday, adding that one could expect a spate of resignations in the coming week.
“Had the opposition MLAs resigned six months before Assembly elections, it would have necessitated bypolls. With Assembly elections barely three months away, a number of Congress and NCP legislators will be resigning in the coming eight to ten days. A number of their MLAs are in touch with us. They will be given entry into our party at the appropriate moment,” Mr. Patil told reporters before starting his tour of Solapur and Osmanabad districts.
However, Mr. Patil, who is also the State Revenue Minister, refused to disclose any names. “Where’s the fun if I reveal names. The joy of life is in its uncertainty?” he remarked.
Mr. Patil said the top leadership of the Congress and the NCP had lost confidence following their rout in the Lok Sabha elections. “With its top leadership [Rahul Gandhi] busy tendering resignations, how can they [Congress-NCP leaders] expect others to carry on working for the party?” he said.
Asked if the entry of turncoats and their being given tickets would make the loyalists unhappy, Mr. Patil said no injustice would be done to old-timers.
“We only give tickets to nominees if we discern any winning potential in them. We changed candidates on as many as seven Lok Sabha seats [in Maharashtra] and all newcomers who were fielded carried the day for us,” he said adding that that the BJP- Shiv Sena was planning its strategy in such a way that the coalition would win at least 220 Assembly seats.
Reiterating that there was no ambiguity on the question of an alliance between the BJP and Shiv Sena, Mr. Patil said that only seat-sharing arrangements remained to be worked out.
“There is no doubt whatsoever on the question of an alliance, what will be its nature is known only to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Sena preident Uddhav Thackeray and the BJP’s national president Amit Shah,” Mr. Patil said.
Laughable, says Thorat
Meanwhile, newly-appointed Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Balasaheb Thorat dismissed Mr. Patil’s claim of Congressmen resigning and joining the BJP as “ludicrous” and “laughable”.
“There is no grain of truth in his [Mr. Patil’s] claims,” Mr. Thorat said in Mumbai.
Dr. Vishwajeet Kadam, the Congress MLA from Palus-Kadegaon in Sangli district, too, dismissed the claims as rumours deliberately designed to mislead and create misconceptions before the Assembly polls.
“This is all the BJP’s doing. With such claims, Chandrakant Patil is deliberately trying to pollute the political climate,” said Dr. Kadam, who is also one of the five newly-appointed working presidents of the MPCC.
Mr. Patil had on Wednesday hinted at Dr. Kadam’s possible defection to the BJP, and said that it ought to come as no surprise if one of the five working presidents of the MPCC joined the BJP in the next 15-20 days.
“Such statements [on Mr. Patil’s part] are utterly meaningless and unfounded…Like my father, the late Dr. Patangrao Kadam, I will always continue to remain a Congress loyalist,” Dr. Kadam stressed.
