Pune: The headquarter of Maharashtra's sugar belt Kolhapur may see some political upheaval in the upcoming assembly poll season as a leader considered to be close to Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and BJP's face in Kagal tehsil Samarjeetsinh Ghatge held a rally of his supporters on Friday to announce that he would be quitting the BJP and would join Sharad Pawar's NCP. Ghatge is most likely to be NCP (SP) candidate in Kagal fighting against state cabinet minister Hasan Mushriff in the assembly polls.
Speaking in presence NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil and supporters, Samarjeetsinh said, “We feel that development is the key and right now there are many problems that the ruling party is unable to solve. We think that it is time to work under the leadership of the most senior leader in the state”.
The big question now is how the politics in Kolhapur would change as the ruling BJP alliance has been trying hard the last few years to take control of the cooperative sector by dominating the politics in the region around Kolhapur. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj won giving the Congress a victory in Kolhapur after a gap of 25 years.
The question is whether this trend of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) winning in Kolhapur would continue in the assembly polls as sitting MLA Hasan Mushriff crossed over from Sharad Pawar's NCP to Ajit Pawar's NCP last year and has been made a cabinet minister in the Mahayuti government.
Kolhapur is not just the biggest sugar cooperative headquarter in the region of western Maharashtra but also a cash rich business centre with a booming real estate and auto sector and there has been fierce competition between the BJP and the MVA to capture the political space in this district.
With Ghatge crossing over from the BJP to NCP (SP) the district may see some political action in the coming weeks ahead of the assembly polls. Samarjeet Ghatge is likely to contest in Kagal assembly constituency which is the home of Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj dynasty.
