Maharashtra Water Resources Minister and senior BJP leader Girish Mahajan claimed in Mumbai on Sunday that at least 50 MLAs from the Congress and the NCP were in contact with the BJP about switching sides before the state polls scheduled for later this year.

Mahajan’s claims

His remarks followed a series of departures from Sharad Pawar’s NCP. Mahajan said senior NCP leader Chitra Wagh had told the BJP a month earlier that she wanted to join it, saying she saw no future in her own party. He said the Congress was in disarray and that the NCP would look weaker within a couple of weeks.

Sachin Ahir, the NCP’s Mumbai chief and a former minister, and Chitra Wagh, president of the party’s women’s wing, have both left the NCP, and Ahir has joined the Shiv Sena. NCP MLA Vaibhav Pichad has also said he wants to join the BJP.

Response to Pawar

Mahajan rejected Pawar’s allegation that the BJP was using government agencies against Congress and NCP leaders to make them defect, saying Pawar was trying to hide his own political failure and that nobody had been threatened or pressured. Mahajan, seen as close to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, also defended Income Tax raids on Hasan Mushrif, an NCP leader and former minister, as lawful and not driven by political revenge.

Navi Mumbai

Sources said a large number of corporators, possibly including Navi Mumbai Mayor Sandeep Naik, could move from the NCP to the BJP. Navi Mumbai politics has long been dominated by a group around Ganesh Naik, an NCP leader and former excise minister, who is also rumoured to be considering a switch. Corporators met on Sunday and urged Sandeep Naik to join the BJP, which sources said would give the party a strong candidate and control of the civic body.

In the 2014 assembly election, the BJP won 122 of 288 seats and the Shiv Sena 63, while the Congress and the NCP took 42 and 41 respectively.

What happened next

In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly election, the BJP won 105 seats, the Shiv Sena 56, the NCP 54 and the Congress 44. After the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance broke, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena became Chief Minister in November 2019 with NCP and Congress support.

See also: Nationalist Congress Party | Indian National Congress

Originally published on 29 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us