Maharashtra BJP to meet amidst talks of change in guard

The Maharashtra BJP will hold its two-day long meeting in Mumbai against the backdrop of imminent change of guard in the state unit as well as reshuffle in the cabinet from Thursday.

The state BJP executive will meet at Prabodhankar Thakare Auditorium at Borivli on Friday, a day after meeting of its core committee at Dadar. Sources in the state BJP, while speaking on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the state president Raosaheb Danve might soon be replaced either by education minister Vinod Tawde, revenue minister Chandrakant Patil or MLC Sujitsinh Thakur. However, they added that the shake-up in both the state party apparatus as well as the state cabinet will take place once a similar reshuffle takes place at the Center which is long overdue.

The executive meeting is likely to adopt resolutions on current political situation in the state and on agriculture, behind the scenes talks are bound to centre on the appointments of new state president and state party organisation secretary.

Sources disclosed that Danve's name is once again doing the rounds in the union cabinet reshuffle. They argued that Tawde's name is doing rounds as successor of Danve because of his dismal handling of chaos in the First Year Junior College (FYJC) online admission process. Patil, who is also in the talks as a likely successor to Danve, has taken a backseat as the party needs someone like him to strongly defend the government in the legislative council.

First time MLC Sujitsinh Thakur is likely to emerge as a dark horse. He could be tipped to become the next state president as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis would want someone at the helm of affairs in the state unit with whom he can gel with. Besides, the state BJP president, the party needs to also consider filling up the vacancy of state organisational secretary. The post fell vacant after incumbent Ravi Bhusari stepped down citing reason that he had crossed the retirement age limit of 60 years set by the party.

Sources disclosed that besides the debate on current political situation and the agricultural scenario, the state executive is also likely to take stock of the progress made in the program of expanding the party's support base in the state. The latest issue of party mouthpiece 'Manogat' apparently seems to have set the agenda for the party.

The latest issue favours 50 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Ironically, the magazine carries an article on BJP president Amit Shah arguing that the BJP government at the Center has not faced any charges of corruption. Whereas the BJP government in the state has faced a slew of corruption charges of late from the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led opposition.

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