Dushyant Chaturvedi with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)Ahead of the Assembly polls, Congress leader and former minister Satish Chaturvedi’s son Dushyant Chaturvedi joined the Shiv Sena on Sunday in presence of party’s chief Uddhav Thackeray.
Sena leaders said Dushyant will be given a party post soon. Dushyant’s induction into the party will help the Sena “to expand its base in the Nagpur and Vidarbha regions”, a party leader said.
Sena ‘headhunting’ from Cong, NCP
With the Assembly elections approaching, the Shiv Sena is headhunting from the Congress and NCP. With the 50:50 seat-sharing arrangement between Sena and BJP, it will need far more candidates than it has at the moment. On Sunday, Dushyant Chaturvedi from Congress joined Sena, while last month NCP legislator Jaydutt Kshirsagar joined the party. Such switchovers will help the Sena in constituencies where the two Opposition parties are strong.The Sena would want to win as many seats as possible to maintain a tight equation with the BJP.
The leader added that the Sena has always given more seats to the BJP in the assembly polls from Vidarbha region. “Now, the attempt is to get the leaders from the opposition parties into the party’s fold. So that, the party’s presence can be expanded wherever it is weak.”
Last month, Jaydutt Kshirsagar, former minister and NCP legislator from Beed, resigned as a legislator and joined the Sena.
He was given a cabinet berth as the Chief Minister expanded his cabinet in a recent reshuffle.
