MUMBAI, July 17: The Sena-BJP alliance is in for a major setback with at least four Ministers of State - Independents close to Sharad Pawar - three senior BJP leaders and a Shiv Sena functionary planning to cross over to join Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).Though Chief Minister Narayan Rane has specifically ruled out such a possibility, one of the Ministers of State confirmed that along with him, three of his colleagues will join Pawar's party.The four ministers who are likely to join the NCP bandwagon are Anil Deshmukh (Education and Technical Education), Tukaram Dighole (Energy), Shivajirao Naik (Public Works) and Vijay Kumar Gavit (Medical Education). Deshmukh has been elected to the assembly from Katol in Nagpur district, Dighole from Sinnar in Nasik district, Naik from Sangli and Gavit from Nandurbar.Justifying the Independents decision, the minister of state remarked that since they had already given a word to Pawar, it would be difficult for them to stay with the alliance despiteThackeray and Pramod Mahajan assuring them that their candidature will be considered by both Shiv Sena as well as BJP, The BJP was not surprised at the decision of independent legislators. ``They are supporters of Pawar and as such, they have no alternative but to fall in line with them,'' a senior BJP leader explained. Along with the four ministers, three senior BJP leaders former MP Rajabhau Thakre and legislators Govindrao Chaudhary and A T Pawar are also likely to join hands with Pawar. Thakre, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Yavatmal constituency, was defeated in the last parliamentary elections by Congress nominee Uttamrao Patil.Both Choudhary and A T Pawar were unceremoniously sacked from the cabinet. While Choudhary has been elected from Dhule district, Pawar represents Nasik district in the assembly. Prashad Hiray, who had jointed the Shiv Sena, is all set to join Pawar's party to protest against failure of the alliance government to form Malegaon district.On its part, the alliance isgetting into the election mode with the Chief Minister Narayan Rane calling another high level meeting which was attended by former Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, Udhav Thackeray, Subhash Desai, Sharad Kulkarni, Prakash Jawdekar and Atul Bhatkhalkar.The meeting decided to set up a joint committee to draft the Vachan Nama (manifesto) of the alliance and also considered the proposal of exchange of seats between the Shiv Sena and BJP for both Lok Sabha as well as assembly.As per the agreement reached between the alliance partners, Shiv Sena will contest 22 Lok Sabha seats, while BJP will contest 26 seats. The dispute was over four seats - Ramtek, Yeotmal, South Ahmednagar and Kopargaon. In the last elections, Shiv Sena had fielded its nominees for Ramtek and South Ahmednagar, while the BJP contested Yeotmal and Kopargaon seats.``The proposal was that Ramtek and South Ahmednagar should be given to BJP, while Yeotmal and Kopargaon should be given to Shiv Sena. I think, there was no objection from both theseats, it should not be difficult to implement the proposal,'' a BJP leader said.On the campaign strategy, the BJP leader said a comprehensive action plan was drafted at the meeting. ``We are planning to organise joint meetings of Thackeray and Mahajan, Rane and Munde and other senior leaders of the alliance,'' the BJP leader added.The selection of BJP candidates, which was to begin on Monday, has now been postponed to July 25. ``The names recommended by the State Election Committee will be put up before the Central Election Committee, which is scheduled to meet in New Delhi on August 2, 3 and 4,'' he said.
