In confidence-building exercise, Fadnavis to address BJP legislators today

“Ahead of the crucial Monsoon Session, we have convened a meeting of our MLAs and MLCs. Fadnavis will address the legislators,” state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said.

The two-week Monsoon Session will commence on July 17.

Generally, such meetings take place 24 hours before a House session commences. If the BJP has called the meeting in advance, it clearly shows that it is a confidence-building exercise, where it wants to discuss and reassure its legislators that the partnership with the NCP is not going to undermine its organisational expansion nor position within the government and state politics.

A senior BJP leader said, “When the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray was split there was a sense of rejoicing as the cadre was extremely upset with their betrayal. However, with Fadnavis made the deputy CM, our celebrations were short-lived. Now, the BJP reckons the split in the NCP was necessary to dent the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in Maharashtra.”

Yet, in seven out of eight Lok Sabha seats the BJP has a sitting MP. These MPs have to be reassured about their electoral prospects. Moreover, in all these seven constituencies, NCP candidates were runners-up (second position). So, the NCP candidates will also be vying for tickets.

Identical will be the situation in the 56 Assembly seats where the BJP and the NCP contested five years ago. While the BJP has 34 sitting MLAs the NCP has 22 sitting MLAs. In all 34 seats, NCP candidates polled the second highest. And in 22 seats, BJP candidates polled second highest. Now, in all these 56 constituencies, the BJP-NCP being alliance partners can field only common candidates.

A case in point is the development in Kagal Assembly seat in Kolhapur, where Samarjeet Ghatage was upset with NCP’s Hasan Mushrif getting Cabinet rank in the Sena-BJP-NCP government. Ghatage had contested against Mushrif in the last polls and lost. But he wants to contest the seat in 2024. With Mushrif’s induction in the government, he was worried.

Political strategists in the party say Fadnavis is the biggest example for our karyakartas. Despite being the rightful claimant for the CM post, he had to settle for deputy CM.