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Maha polls: Impact of turncoat factor
Ahead of the elections, at least two dozen leaders with significant political clout in their respective bastions deserted their parties to join the ruling Bharatiya
Ahead of the elections, at least two dozen leaders with significant political clout in their respective bastions deserted their parties to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or Shiv Sena. Some of the turncoats are expected to help the ruling parties make inroads in the constituencies they were weak in, while in a few cases, the poaching has led to rebellion, which may hurt the party’s prospects. However, for most turncoats, their political career is at stake.
Leader of opposition in the legislative Assembly and Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s desertion to the BJP immediately after the Lok Sabha polls was a big blow for the party. His son Sujay Vikhe-Patil had joined the ruling party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and won from Ahmednagar. Soon, a number of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders joined either the BJP or Shiv Sena. Udayanraje Bhosale, Shivendraraje Bhosale, Jaidutt Kshirsagar, Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, his son Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, Dilip Sopal, Padmasinh Patil and his son Rana Jagjitsinh, Dhananjay Mahadik left the NCP to join the BJP or Shiv Sena. Congress defectors Kalidas Kolambkar, Nitesh Rane, Harshvardhan Patil, Gopaldas Agarwal joined the BJP, while its Muslim face from Marathwada Abdul Sattar joined the Shiv Sena.
The poaching by the ruling parties, especially by the BJP, was with dual intention, first to weaken the opposition and second to spread its base in the bastion of these leaders. “We have inducted these leaders in the constituencies where we have no strong leaders and avoided influx where we have strong leaders. Leaders like Vikhe-Patil, Padmasinh Patil come with a guarantee of victory on a few seats in their districts. This ensures a rise in the total number of seats,” said a BJP leader, requesting anonymity.
The ruling parties, however, have paid the price of poaching in some constituencies. After Rashmi Bagal was announced the Shiv Sena candidate from Karmala, party’s sitting MLA Narayana Patil is fighting against her as an independent. Bagal had joined the Sena by defecting from the NCP a few months ago.
Shiv Sena’s local unit is not standing by Jaidutt Kshirsagar in Beed and Abdul Sattar in Sillod (Aurangabad), after the leaders switched sides to join the ruling parties. BJP leaders admit that the rebellion posed in about 50 constituencies across the state in ruling parties is also because of the mass exodus from other parties. They concede that this would affect the party prospects this election.
On the other hand, some of them are battling to win even after changing the sides. “Leaders like Jaykumar Gore (Maan-Khatao), Bhausaheb Kamble (Shrirampur), Nitesh Rane, Udayanaraje (Satara bypoll) and Shivendraraje Bhosale (Satara), Nirmala Gavit (Igatpuri) are struggling to win and may even face defeat. They will repent leaving the Opposition parties as they would not get the respect they used to enjoy in our parties. Vijaykumar Gavit and Babanrao Pachpute have realised this. It is true that had they continued with the Congress and NCP, we could have formed the government,” Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said.
The Opposition has alleged that their leaders were poached by the BJP, either by threatening them with action for irregularities in their institutions or wooing them with financial help to their bleeding institutes in cooperative or education institutes.
“Not only the constituencies, but the BJP strengthened its presence in cooperative and education sector by inducting leaders like Vikhe-Patil, Vaibhav Pichad and Padmasinh Patil, among others. The BJP aims to cross the mark of 135 seats banking on the seats held by leaders poached from other parties,” said political analyst Hemant Desai.
BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, “We expect to gain from leaders inducted from other parties. It is true that we faced rebellion, but it won’t affect our prospects to a large extent. Leaders who have been inducted were not given any promise of any specific post.”
