Saffron party poaches congress MBMC corporator

Mumbai: With a few weeks left for the Lok Sabha elections, the Aaya Ram Gaya Ram (party hopping) culture has once again started gaining momentum in the twin city. In continuance with its poaching spree, the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership dealt a huge blow to the Congress by pulling their corporator, Naresh Patil, from ward number 9, into the party bandwagon on Sunday.

Mr Patil, who was considered as a staunch loyalist of former legislator Gilbert Mendonca, had won on a NCP ticket in 2012. He managed to retain his seat in 2017 but this time on Congress ticket. This is the third such defection in less than a fortnight after Sena’s Anita Patil and Congress supported corporator Amjad Shaikh switched their loyalties to join the BJP.

Although the Thane parliamentary seat is being contested by Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Vichare, who is pitted against NCP’s Anand Paranjpe, the aggressive poaching campaign is being seen as an orchestrated plan by BJP legislator Narendra to consolidate his position in the Mira Bhayandar Assembly segment (145) which falls under this constituency.