Maharashtra NCP legislator quits, to join BJP
Mumbai, May 23: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) received a jolt on Wednesday when its Maharashtra legislator Niranjan Davkhare quit the party and his legislative council seat.
Davkhare, 39, the son of the late NCP leader Vasant Davkhare, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other senior leaders, a party (BJP) spokesperson said.
A stunned NCP hit back this afternoon by suspending him from the party membership for a period of six years. The action came for his anti-party utterances and other grounds, said General Secretary Shivajirao Garje.
In a brief statement after submitting his resignation to NCP state President Jayant Patil, Davkhare said: "I am feeling very sad to leave the NCP. I had witnessed the birth and growth of NCP along with my father. But I am totally fed up with the local intra-party politics."
Davkhare also called on Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar and resigned from his MLC seat, to which he was elected in 2012, and barely a month ahead of the upcoming bye-polls to the upper house next month.
Among the closest aides of NCP President Sharad Pawar, Davkhare’s father ruled the roost in Thane for over 24 years as legislative councillor despite the fact that Shiv Sena ruled the Thane Municipal Corporation, and also functioned as Deputy Chairman of the Maharashtra Upper House.
The Election Commission has announced another round of elections to two Graduates and two Teachers Division constituencies in the upper house to be held on June 8.
The four retiring members are: Apoorva P. Hiray (BJP) from Nashik Division Teachers constituency, Kapil Patil (JD-U) of Mumbai Division Teachers constituency, Deepak Sawant (Shiv Sena) from Mumbai Division Graduates constituency and Davkhare from Konkan Division Graduates constituency.
However, presently it is not clear if Davkhare will be given a BJP ticket to contest the bypolls to the state legislature's upper House next month.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
