Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s bid for rapprochement between the two royal thrones of Phaltan and Satara seem to have come to naught with party Lok Sabha MP from Satara Udayanraje Bhosale is certain to quit the NCP and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ranks soon.
In a relief of sorts for the beleaguered NCP chief, Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar who was also reportedly toying with the prospect of joining the Shiv Sena is reported to have retraced his steps. Nimbalkar is reported to have remarked that he cannot contemplate of leaving the NCP chief at this age in his (Pawar senior) life. If that was not enough Pawar senior suffered yet another desertion from his party ranks with his former state party president Bhaskar Jadhav joining the Shiv Sena.
However, it might be interesting to note here that both Bhosale and Jadhav had used quite harsh language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in the recent past. When asked about the Prime Minister, Bhosale had in his usual style in a bid to downgrade the Prime Ministers stature remarked that he has sweets sellers by the name of Modi back home in Satara. On the other hand Jadhav while taking on the Sena president for his criticism of NCP chief Sharad Pawar over the latter’s knowledge of agriculture, had remarked that he had never heard of any business, photography studio or any agricultural land owned by the Thackeray family. He had then expressed wonder as to how come the Thackerays amassed such wealth and how the matter has now reached the court of law.
Although, Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar and Udayanraje Bhosale may have sparred with each other over Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis led governments decision to stop flow of additional water of Neera-Deodhar dam towards Baramati and Indapur and instead divert it to parched lands in Satara and Solapur, the seeds of the current day tussle lies in the battle of supremacy between the royal thrones of Phaltan and Satara. Udayanraje Bhosale is considered as the 13th in the royal lineage of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in a deft move has used the sensitive issue of water to subtly portray the NCP chief of diverting excess water to his fiefdom Baramati, but has also managed to reopen the old feud between the two royals driving Udayanraje into waiting BJP arms. While Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar is reported to be joining the Sena ranks soon. The NCP chief must have by now realized the meaning of the proverb that one cannot keep two swords (royals) in one sheath.
Last week on Saturday, Pawar senior had called both the royals for a meeting with a view to end the hostilities between the two. However, Nimbalkar’s accusation that Bhosale with the help of Congress MLA Jaykumar Gore had plotted against NCP candidate in Madha in the recent Lok Sabha elections. This made Udayanraje Bhosale fly off the handle and in a fit of rage is reported to have stormed out of the meeting. The next was inevitable as Nimbalkar and Bhosale supporters took out protest morchas in Phaltan and Satara respectively.
Sources disclosed that Udayanraje Bhosale will have to tender resignation of his membership of the Lok Sabha and seek re-election. But the problem for Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar would have been that, apart from being the Chairman of the upper house, but is also elected from the Elected by MLAs constituency in July 2016. His six year term is to end in July 2022. If he were to contest the Assembly elections then his home-town, the Phaltan assembly constituency is a reserved Schedule Caste (SC) constituency. For election to the legislative Assembly he would have had to scout for safe seat from amongst Wai, Koregaon, Man, Karad North, Karad South, Patan and Satara, all which have been NCP strongholds thanks to presence of Udayanraje Bhosale.
Out of the eight assembly seats that come under Satara district, five assembly seats of Phaltan (SC), Wai, Koregaon, Karad North and Satara. The only option for Nimbalkar is to opt for Patan seat which Sena’s Shambhuraje Desai has won in 2014, whether the latter will give up the claim on his own seat for Nimbalkar is the moot question. Udayanraje Bhosale certainly would not have been kind enough to allow Nimbalkar a safe passage to the legislative assembly. For Udayanraje, BJP is not a new home as he was an MLC and a Minister in the state cabinet in 1998.
On the other hand, notwithstanding whatever Bhaskar Jadhav may have said about Sena president Uddhav Thackeray while quitting the Sena in 2004, the importance of having a strong leader from Konkan region on his side was not lost on anyone as the Sena president arranged for a special chartered flight for Jadhav so that he could go to Aurangabad to meet Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagade, get his signatures on his resignation letter and submit the same at the Speakers office at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai.
Between 1995-2004 Jadhav had represented the Chiplun assembly seat. In 2006 he was elected to the legislative council from the Konkan local authorities constituency. In 2013 he was made the state NCP chief. From 2009 till today, he represented the Guhagar assembly seat. His re-entry into the Sena has dealt a body blow to the aspirations of his arch rival Ramdas Kadam who was eyeing the seat for his son. The entry of Jadhav has snuffed out all possible hopes of BJPs rebel Dr Vinay Natu who had once represented the seat of making any political comeback.
With the intake capacity of the BJP reaching a saturation point, former noted cop, encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma formally joined the Shiv Sena. He had quit the police force just recently. Sources close to the former cop revealed that he is keen on contesting from the Nalasopara assembly constituency which has a sizeable north Indian community population. The seat is the stronghold of Hitendra Thakur led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA). He is the second bureaucrat after Vijay Nahata to have joined the Sena. Nahata a former IAS had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 assembly elections against NCPs Ganesh Naik and BJPs winner Manda Mhatre.
