Mumbai: Sharad Pawar's NCP rues that leaders with power and capacity succumbing to BJP's pressure

Pic: PTI File

The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Tuesday said former Congress veteran and ex-Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan joining the BJP was not surprising, but rued that certain leaders who have the power and capacity to fight the saffron party are actually succumbing to its pressures.

In a setback to the Congress ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Chavan Monday tendered his resignation from the party. On Tuesday, he joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at an event in Mumbai that was attended by senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis.

NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) spokesperson Clyde Crasto said Chavan is another example of those individuals, who when they are the lens, the BJP puts pressure on them.

"They succumb to it and then eventually join the party," he said alluding to the Adarsh scam which cost Chavan his chief ministerial berth in 2010.

Chavan is an accused in the Adarsh housing society scam wherein a 31-storey posh building in south Mumbai was constructed allegedly on land owned by the Defence Ministry without getting the requisite permissions and clearances

"It (Chavan joining the BJP) is not a surprise," Crasto said.

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"There are certain leaders, who have the power and capacity to fight the BJP, are actually giving up and succumbing to their pressures," Crasto added.

Besides, Fadnavis Chavan (65) was inducted into the BJP at the party office in Mumbai in the presence of BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Mumbai party unit head Ashish Shelar and cabinet minister Girish Mahajan.

"Today is the beginning of my new political career," Chavan, who quit the Congress on Monday, told reporters earlier in the day.

Asked if he had received any calls from senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Chavan evaded a reply.

Former Congress MLC Amarnath Rajurkar and several supporters of Chavan from his home district Nanded in Marathwada came to Mumbai and gathered at the BJP office in south Mumbai.

Ashok Chavan (65), the son of former CM S B Chavan, on Monday underscored that his choice to depart from the Congress was independent and refrained from attributing specific reasons for his exit.

His exit from the Congress came days after senior Maharashtra Congress leaders Baba Siddique and Milind Deora quit the party.

Ashok Chavan stepped down as the chief minister in 2010 for his alleged involvement in Adarsh housing scam in Mumbai.

He is an accused in the Adarsh housing society scam wherein a 31-storey posh building in south Mumbai was constructed allegedly on land owned by the Defence Ministry without getting the requisite permissions and clearances.

The backdrop of the Adarsh Building scam mentioned in a white paper tabled in Parliament last week has drawn attention as a potential factor in Chavan's departure, a claim though denied by him.

Chavan was the state Congress chief during 2014-19.

He represented Bhokar assembly seat and is also a former MP from Nanded Lok Sabha constituency. (With inputs from PTI)