Leaked tapes of phone calls rattle BJP in Maharashtra; Sena's Dipke outreach raises eyebrows

The tapes have conversations and even offensive remarks about party leaders including former Nandurbar MP Heena Gavit and union minister Raksha Khadse.

A leak of phone call recordings purportedly of BJP leader Vijay Chaudhary has rocked the BJP in Maharashtra. Several audio tapes of Chaudhary’s alleged conversation with different leaders have found their way to social media and television channels. The tapes have conversations and even offensive remarks about party leaders including former Nandurbar MP Heena Gavit and union minister Raksha Khadse. Supporters of both Gavit and Khadse are up in arms against Chaudhary, who has claimed that his conversations were altered using artificial intelligence (AI). Following the controversy last week and an FIR being registered against him in Nandurbar, he resigned as north Maharashtra convenor of the party. Meanwhile, the Nandurbar police arrested his personal assistant Yash Tipre for leaking the recordings of his calls on social media. The controversy has put BJP’s north Maharashtra leader and state’s disaster management minister Girish Mahajan in a tight spot. Chaudhary is known to be close to him and a couple of leaked audio tapes have him in conversation with the former. Significantly, Mahajan—a close aide of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis—recently said that he has been in politics for long and sometimes feels that it is time to hang up his boots.

The controversy has put BJP’s north Maharashtra leader and state’s disaster management minister Girish Mahajan in a tight spot. Chaudhary is known to be close to him and a couple of leaked audio tapes have him in conversation with the former. (@iVijayChaudhari/ X)

Sena leaders and CJP

Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s colleagues put him in an awkward position last week as they called on Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Dipke at his Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar house to congratulate him on the recent protest, which led to the resignation of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Shinde-led Sena’s minister Sanjay Shirsat and legislator Bachchu Kadu met Dipke separately at his residence. Shirsat who hails from the same district even told the media that he knew Dipke’s parents well. Irked by this, BJP legislator Pravin Darekar on Saturday demanded that Shiv Sena should clear its stand on Dipke. “How can an NDA partner congratulate Dipke? They may have done it for publicity. This was not proper. The Sena needs to make its stand clear,” he said.

Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde’s colleagues put him in an awkward position last week as they called on CJP's Abhijeet Dipke at his Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar house to congratulate him on the recent protest. (File Photo/PTI)

As Darekar is a close aide of the chief minister, it is understood that he would not publicly confront Shinde without the knowledge of Fadnavis. Sena leaders said Shinde had already rapped the duo for doing it but BJP leaders are not willing to believe that Shirsat and Kadu did it without the party leadership knowing it. It could have been done to remind the BJP that the ally has nuisance value, they suspect. It was not a coincidence that Darekar made the remarks the day union home minister Amit Shah was in Maharashtra. It remains to be seen what Shinde or his colleagues say in response to Darekar’s remarks.

Back to square one?

There is much curiosity about what transpired in a meeting in the Capital between NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, senior NCP leader Praful Patel and Parth Pawar, son of deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar who is now increasingly handling the affairs of the party. Since the meeting took place soon after Pawar called on prime minister Narendra Modi, the speculations were rife that the talks about merger of the two NCP factions are back on track. However, NCP insiders say Parth communicated to the veteran politician that his mother was not willing to compromise on her stand that she would continue as party chief. She was also not keen to let a senior legislator from Pawar faction (i.e. Jayant Patil) join state cabinet on behalf of the party and take charge of the crucial finance department, it is learnt. Leaders from both the camps say the talks have not made much headway and the senior Pawar may choose to maintain friendly relations with the BJP till something happens on that front. This may also mean the party could vote in favour of the delimitation bill when it comes before Parliament.

Embarrassment to honest confession

Speaking at the foundation day of the MNS students wing that he heads, Amit Thackeray, son of MNS chief Raj Thackeray, probably got overwhelmed and forgot what to say after a point. Embarrassed, he confessed that he had forgotten what he wanted to say and stopped his speech. However, sometime later, he returned to the dais and resumed his speech. “I had not memorised my speech,” he explained as the crowd applauded his effort. He even said that he was in politics because he was the son of Raj Thackeray. The episode has become viral with mixed reactions from the people. Some are calling him nepo kid while others are appreciating him for his effort.