Fadnavis aide Pravin Darekar BJP’s pick for Opposition leader in Council

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed Pravin Darekar, member of the legislative Council and confidant of former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as the leader

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appointed Pravin Darekar, member of the legislative Council and confidant of former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as the leader of Opposition in the Upper House on Monday.

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A former Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader, Darekar, who joined the BJP post his defeat in 2014 polls, hails from the Maratha community. His appointment comes as a surprise and may ruffle some feathers within the party organization, as he continues to have an ‘outsider’ tag.

Darekar, 51, who heads the Mumbai co-operative bank, was chosen over two other old-timers, Sujitsingh Thakur and Bhai Girkar. Thakur is the general secretary of the state BJP and a veteran leader from Osmanabad, while Girkar was the former Mumbai chief.

Darekar’s appointment was announced in the legislative Council; the Shiv Sena appointed its minister and veteran leader Subhash Desai as the leader of the Council.

The general expectation was that the BJP may project an other backward class (OBC) face, given the perception that it was sidelining OBC leaders in the backdrop of uneasiness expressed by former minister Pankaja Munde and open revolt by another former minister Eknath Khadse.

This appointment is also an indicator the BJP leadership will not immediately react to the rebellion in its ranks and reposes faith in Fadnavis’s leadership.

“I thank PM Modi, party chief Amit Shah, Union minister Nitin Gadkari, working president JP Nadda, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and the rest of BJP leaders for this appointment. I will try my best to ensure my party gets full justice in the legislative Council and this government is held accountable. I am thankful to all my party colleagues for supporting my appointment,” said Darekar after the appointment.

A section within the party said that Darekar’s appointment is for a short term of three to four months until one of its senior OBC leaders like Pankaja Munde or former minister Chandrakashekhar Bawankule who lost the polls are nominated to the legislative Council.

“This is most likely a short-term arrangement as we don’t have a senior OBC leader in the Council right now. It was a flip between Sujitsingh Thakur and Darekar,” said a senior former minister and state party functionary.

However, a senior former minister close to Fadnavis denied that Darekar would necessarily be replaced.

“It depends on how Darekar performs. The caste dynamics is also taken care of as Darekar is a Maratha, while Fadnavis is a Brahmin. We will accommodate OBC leadership after a while or in a different way. OBC MLA Devyani Farande has been appointed the whip of the party,” said this leader.

The party also appointed former school education minister and a Maratha, Ashish Shelar, as the party’s chief whip in the legislative Assembly, besides Farande, who hails from the Mali community.

Thakur was accommodated as the chief whip in the Council and Girkar as deputy leader here.