BJP's mission Maharashtra: Narendra Modi's men trying to woo Congress and NCP MLAs

MUMBAI: With Shiv Sena refusing to renegotiate the seat-sharing pact with its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, for the forthcoming assembly polls, BJP is trying a different strategy to boost its number of seats in Maharashtra.

The right wing party has decided to aggressively woo sitting Congress and NCP MLAs in the state to switch over to BJP, and has already begun approaching Congress ministers from the Vidarbha region, according to people familiar with the situation.

Interestingly, BJP is wooing MLAs where the Sena has finished second best. “Once a sitting MLA crosses over to BJP, Sena would be told that even though they had contested from that seat, the ticket would have to be given to BJP candidate as he is the sitting MLA, and not the Sena candidate,” said a party insider, aware of the matter.

The BJP plans to approach close to 25 such legislators, but it feels that it has a realistic chance with not more than 12-15 of them from the Congress and NCP. According to some Congress leaders in the know of the matter, a few party MLAs from the Vidarbha region have been sent feelers by BJP, and have been assured that they would be given tickets for the assembly polls if they crossed the fence.

“With the BJP-Shiv Sena’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections, and the public anger against the Congress-NCP combine, many feel that they might lose if they contest under the Congress symbol. So some of these leaders are willing to cross over to BJP,” said a Congress leader. He, however, added there’s an element of risk as the Sena may refuse to give up the seat.

For starters, BJP has already won over former Congress MP Datta Meghe from Wardha. Meghe’s son Sagar had contested against a BJP candidate and lost in the recent LS polls from Wardha.