Mumbai, June 8
At least 25 MLAs from the opposition Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party are knocking at the doors of the BJP ahead of the assembly elections due later this year, Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan told reporters here.
”Some of them have met me personally while others have phoned me or sent feelers through mutual friend about joining the BJP,” Mahajan said. He added that some close confidantes of Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan too have shown interest in joining the BJP.
Mahajan, who is seen as the right-hand man of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, added that the Congress-NCP alliance would not even win 50 seats in the 288-member assembly.
He however added that the BJP would not be able to accommodate all those aspiring to join the party since it has already made commitments to its own leaders and allies.
“We have told some of aspirants to join the BJP unconditionally as we have given commitments to some other leaders,” Mahajan added.
The minister was responding to queries from reporters about Chavan’sallegations on Friday that Chief Minister Fadnavis was calling up Congress MLAs and asking them to join the BJP.
Mahajan added that the BJP would induct former Leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil into the party before the monsoon session of the state assembly, which begins on June 17.
