Pravin Darekar, Vasant Geete move on to BJP

Likely to take along a bunch of MNS supporters; spell trouble for chief Raj Thackeray

Former MNS MLA Pravin Darekar is set to join the BJP on Tuesday. Senior MNS leader Vasant Geete from Nashik and former MLA from Kalyan (rural) Ramesh Patil are also likely to join the party along with Mr Darekar. The move is significant in view of the coming BMC elections, as Mr Darekar has assured the BJP of getting along with him a big chunk of MNS office bearers and corporators.

According to sources, Mr Darekar, former MLA from Magathane, was in touch with the BJP and Shiv Sena over the past few months. He was bargaining hard with both the parties and had met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for the same reason a fortnight ago. However, the BJP succeeded in cracking the deal and Mr Darekar will join the party on Tuesday.

His entry in the BJP brings more trouble to MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who has been struggling with the party’s survival, as Mr Geete and Mr Patil are also taking with them many of their supporters.

MNS is in power in the Nashik Municipal Corporation with 40 corporators, while the party has 26 corporators in the Kalyan- Dombivli Municipal Corporation. Similarly, the party has 28 corporators in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). “All these leaders are in touch with many corporators for all three corporations who are eager to shift out of MNS owing to its bleak future,” said source.

Sources claimed that Mr Darekar had assured to get at least 15 out of the 28 MNS corporators to join the party in Mumbai alone.

The move has also brought the issue of one-upmanship between the BJP and Shiv Sena that has been sharing power in the state government and BMC as well. It is evident with BJP announcing energy-efficient LED street lights replacing conventional ones in the city within the next eight months with the help of the state government.

The announcement made by Ashish Shelar, Mumbai BJP president, did not go down well in the Shiv Sena that is fully aware that this would definitely help the BJP to strengthen its position in the city, which also means that Sena would lose its stronghold. As a result, Sena leader and MLA Sunil Prabhu opposed the project by writing a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asking him to stay the project.