Maharashtra: NCP legislator Niranjan Davkhare quits party, set to join BJP

NCP legislator Niranjan Davkhare

In a blow to the Nationalist Congress Party, its legislator Niranjan Davkhare on Wednesday resigned from the party and is now all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Davkhare, 39, the son of former deputy chairman of the legislative council (late) Vasant Davkhare, also submitted his resignation as the party’s MLC to chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar.

Stung by the defection, the NCP leadership hit back, suspending him from the party’s membership for a period of six years. Labelling him as an “opportunist”, NCP’s general secretary Shivajirao Garje said the opportunistic behaviour was unbecoming of someone who had been promoted on several occasions at the state level. “The party made him the state student wing chief, then the youth chief and then a legislator. It is not right to claim that we did not give him sufficient opportunities. He has quit the party for opportunistic reasons only,” said Garje.

Incidentally, Davkhare’s resignation comes barely a month before elections are to be held for the Konkan graduate constituency seat which Davkhare has been representing in the Upper House since 2012. Sources said the NCP leadership was aware of him cosying up to the BJP and was unlikely to renominate him to the House. Further, with the seat seen as a BJP stronghold, Davkhare, too, fancied his prospects of being reelected in BJP colours.

When prodded over the renomination to the council and joining the BJP, Davkhare remained non-committal on Wednesday. “I’ll soon announce my future course of action,” he said. But sources confirmed Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is likely to formally induct him into the BJP on Thursday. He is also the frontrunner to win BJP’s nomination for the council seat, said sources.

While Davkhare alleged that he was quitting the party on account of “internal politics at the local level”, party MLA Jitendra Awhad said he should have been mindful of the opportunities and the faith bestowed on him by the party. Davkhare’s father was among the closest aides of NCP president Sharad Pawar and held the legislative council’s deputy chairman’s post for 18 long years.

“He (Niranjan) should have at least respected the ties the Pawar family had with his father,” said Awhad.