Mumbai: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and medical education minister Girish Mahajan said that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) should introspect as to why its members were leaving the party. Speaking with The Asian Age, Mr Mahajan said that he was in touch with 50 to 60 legislators, who wanted to join the saffron party.
He also said that the people were fed up with the parivarvad (dynasty politics) of the NCP.
Mr Mahajan said, “Opposition parties’ leaders are approaching us. We are not going behind anyone. In fact, we are asking them to wait as we can’t accommodate everyone.”
Stating that, barring five to 10 legislators, nobody wanted to stay with the Congress and NCP, he added, “The (Opposition) leaders have lost faith in the party.”
Meanwhile, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis hit out at NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Nagpur, saying he should do soul searching to find out why people were abandoning his party. Mr Pawar had claimed on Sunday morning in Pune that BJP leaders, including Mr Fadnavis and his ministers, were working towards poaching leaders from the opposition ranks by misusing probe agencies and state-run financial bodies ahead of assembly polls.
Claiming that BJP was “beyond running behind anyone” as the people of India were with the party and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief minister said, “The stand of the BJP is very clear. A lot of leaders from the Congress and NCP are interested in joining the BJP, but very few will be allowed to join. Those with Enforcement Directorate cases will not be taken in. We do not need such people... We will take care of those who are good and work for the people.”
He also said that many sugar factories belonging to the members of Mr Pawar’s party were helped by the government and state banks when they were in trouble. “However, we never asked them to join the BJP,” he claimed.
