Nirmala Gavit likely to join turncoat bandwagon

Mumbai: Yet another Congress MLA is likely to join the ranks of turncoats. Igatpuri MLA Nirmala Gavit, daughter of veteran Congress leader Manikrao Gavit, is expected to  join the Shiv Sena.

Ms Gavit and her husband Ramesh Gavit had met senior Shiv Sena leader and public health minister Eknath Shinde on Friday in Igatpuri.

As per sources, Ms Gavit, whose father represented  Nandurbar between 1980 and 2014, may also contest the upcoming election on a Sena ticket.  

However, her son, Harshal Gavit told The Asian Age that his family is being approached by the BJP as well as the Sena. He added that they are yet to take a call whether to join the saffron parties or not.

Amid this, the Congress alleged that Ms Gavit has been pressurised to quit by the ruling parties and join them ahead of the Assembly election.  

“She has been tortured. Her husband, who is in government service, has been transferred and threatened with government enquiry,” a senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity, said. However, she has not quit the party so far, he added.

The Opposition, consisting of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, has been reeling under an unprecedented bout of defections since the end of the Lok Sabha elections.

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP-Sena alliance won 41 seats in the state. On the other hand, the Congress could win only one seat and the NCP four.

On July 31, three MLAs from the NCP and one from the Congress joined the BJP after tendering their resignations from the Legislative Assembly.

Maharashtra, which has a 288-member Assembly, is expected to go to polls in October 2019.