'More people from Opposition will join BJP ahead of 2024 polls'

MUMBAI: More people from the Opposition camp would join the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the elections in 2024, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule claimed on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters in Shirdi in Ahmednagar district, the BJP leader also said he cannot guess any names from the Opposition bloc who might switch their loyalties. The elections to Lok Sabha as well as the Maharashtra Assembly are due next year.

''More people from the other side (opposition) will join BJP ahead of elections in 2024. I cannot tell now who will jump, but the time will decide,'' he said. ''When state finance minister Devendra Fadnavis presented the state budget recently under the leadership of chief minister Eknath Shinde, the facial expressions of Opposition leaders were self-explanatory. You will see when Fadnavis will present the next budget (2024-25), many will change their political affiliations to join BJP," Bawankule claimed.

Queried on the likely seat-sharing formula between the BJP and the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Bawankule said top leaders will take a call. ''I cannot comment on any formula about the proportion of seats to be contested by the BJP and the Shiv Sena. It will be decided by top leaders. Today, there is a strong and able chief minister in the state," he said. The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress are the main opposition parties that are constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Notably, Bawankule had last month said the BJP and the Shiv Sena will contest all 288 Assembly and 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in alliance with other constituents of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). On Sunday, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced ahead of the last assembly elections in Bihar that Nitish Kumar would be the next chief minister as both parties (BJP and JDU) were contesting jointly.

''Despite Nitish Kumar's party winning fewer seats than the BJP, Modiji kept his word and Kumar was made the chief minister," he claimed. Earlier in the day, Eknath Shinde said in Ayodhya that the ideology of Shiv Sena led by him and that of BJP is the same and they will unfurl the saffron flag across Maharashtra next year.

''Our party's role is clear. The Shiv Sena has an alliance with the BJP. Our ideology, which is Hindutva, is the same. We will go to our state with new energy from Ayodhya and serve the people. In 2024, the Shiv Sena and the BJP's 'bhagva' (saffron flag) will be unfurled in the entire state,'' he said while addressing a press conference in the temple town.