BJP’s membership drive will continue: Shah to Shinde on poaching charges

Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly told Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde that the BJP is a national party in power at the Centre, and its efforts to expand membership would not stop but only continue, after Shinde complained about “poaching”, sources said on Friday.

Sources said that after Thursday night’s incident where BJP leader Narayan Pawar allegedly beat up Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leaders Haresh Mahadik and Mahesh Lahane in Thane, the political relationship of the two parties is only likely to deteriorate further.

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According to sources, Shinde met Shah in Delhi and complained to him against Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan aggressively poaching Shinde’s Sena leaders as local civic body elections are near, as well as the “step motherly treatment” given to his ministers in the BJP-led Mahayuti government, due to which his ministers even boycotted a cabinet meeting recently.

Sources said that Shah gave Shinde a patient hearing but told Shinde that if he was worried about his men joining the BJP, then he must control his men rather than blaming the BJP. Shah also told Shinde that since the BJP is a national party which is in power at the centre and the state level, it is only natural that people would want to join the BJP.

Shinde was told that nobody can stop anybody from joining the BJP and that every party has a right to expand its membership, sources said.

Shinde was also told that the BJP’s national top brass plans to form a government on its own strength after the 2029 Maharashtra assembly elections, without any support from any other party.

For quite some time, Shinde’s party men have also been complaining against Maharashtra BJP president Ravindra Chavan aggressively poaching Shinde-led Sena leaders. Shinde-led Shiv Sena ministers have also attributed all their misfortunes to BJP leader Ravindra Chavan, a businessman called Mohit Kamboj who is close to the BJP and a retired bureaucrat called Shrikar Pardeshi, who is the secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Shinde’s men alleged that BJP leader Ravindra Chavan has lured their party workers in Thane-Dombivali region and Ulhasnagar to the BJP, while businessman Mohit Kamboj and retired bureaucrat Shirkar Pardeshi have being accused of micromanaging Shinde’s ministers and even starving Shinde’s MLAs as well as ministers of funds, with the intention of making their voters feel like Shinde’s MLAs are not carrying out any developmental work.

The recent statement by Maharashtra state president of the Congress Harshwardhan Sapkal that that Eknath Shinde is afraid that the BJP plans to split his Sena and get his MLAs to join the BJP, has embarrassed the Shinde-led Shiv Sena ministers thoroughly and the alleged incident of a Thane-based BJP leader Narayan Pawar physical assaulting Shinde-led Sena leaders Haresh Mahadik and Mahesh Lahane, is expected to complicate BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena relations further, sources said.

It has also become widely known that as soon as Deputy CM Eknath Shinde left for Delhi to meet Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at the CM’s ‘Varsha’ residence in South Mumbai to discuss their options and contingency plans, in case Deputy CM Eknath Shinde walks out of the BJP-led Mahayuti.