BJP’s Aggressive Poaching Drive In Rural Maharashtra Raises Big Questions For Eknath Shinde And Mahayuti Alliance |
As the dust settles after two weeks of hectic campaigning for local self-government body polls in rural Maharashtra this week, and the polling takes place for the city councils or nagar parishad polls all over the state, a clear trend has emerged where the ruling BJP is seen ensuring that prominent faces from other parties, including their own alliance partners, cross over to them, thereby increasing the winnability factor for the BJP in hundreds of seats that were otherwise looking difficult to win. This has clearly put not just the opposition but also alliance partners of the BJP, such as Eknath Shinde, in doubt about how they will politically survive once the poll season is over.
The BJP looked very aggressive as it prepared to face elections in hundreds of nagar parishads all over Maharashtra. Especially in the Konkan and Western Maharashtra, which have traditionally been the Shiv Sena and NCP strongholds, the BJP was seen going out of its way to ensure many faces from both these parties simply crossed over to their party, leaving both Eknath Shinde and the NCP leaders stunned. Shiv Sena leader Nilesh Rane got very vocal........