Journalism of Courage
Babajani Durrani, the president of Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Parbhani district unit has shunned the party that he joined last year. The two-time MLC and one-time MLA from Pathri assembly constituency in Parbhani district was known to be a Sharad Pawar loyalist but had defected to Mahayuti in October 2023 reportedly owing to local issues.
Durrani joined the NCP (SP) in the presence of party president Sharad Pawar and senior leader Rajesh Tope in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad). Durrani’s defection is being seen as a significant setback for the Ajit faction amid murmurs of growing discontent in the junior Pawar’s party after Lok Sabha debacle.
Speaking to media persons after the event, Durrani said he decided to return to the Sharad Pawar faction because of public pressure and the difficulties that he faced while working with parties with “communal ideologies”.
“I decided to return to Sharad Pawar saheb’s NCP because it’s very difficult for a worker like me to work for a party which is in alliance with the BJP or Shinde’s Shiv Sena whose politics is centred around creating rifts along religious and caste lines. My workers, people in my constituency were pressing me to join an INDIA alliance,” said Durrani in Sambhajinagar following the programme where he formally joined the party.
He said that there was pressure from “Muslim, Dalit communities” to go with a secular party that believes in the ideology of “Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar”.
“During the Lok Sabha elections, we saw that Muslims and Dalits did not vote for us only because we are in alliance with BJP, Shinde Sena. For the last ten years, despite India being a robust democracy, Muslims are being targeted.
In such a situation, it’s difficult for me to work with people who are creating rifts between communities,” said Durrani.
He said that in a recent meeting with minority leaders of Ajit Pawar’s NCP, he had voiced his opinion that Muslims are not happy with the party’s decision to go with BJP. “I had publicly said that the party can not win election by being in alliance with BJP,” said Durrani.
He said that the Ajjt Pawar-led party insists that it follows the ideology of Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar. “I agree that the party follows the secular ideology, but because it’s in alliance with BJP, people are very unhappy with it,” said Durrani.
Durrani, who has a sizeable following in Parbhani district, served as an MLA from 2004 to 2009. He was made an MLC in 2012 and 2018. The seat recently became vacant on which NCP (Ajit Pawar) nominated Rajesh Vitekar, a fellow party leader from Parbhani.
