by One of the biggest rebellions that has emerged is in Mumbai with former MP Gopal Shetty raising the issue of locals versus outsiders within the party Shetty has affirmed he will fight the polls as an In dependent although party functionaries are confident that they will be able to persuade him to pull outBJP succeeded in ensuring that former MLAs from south Mumbai Raj Purohit, Atul Shah did not file papers as Independents In Kothrud it is learned that Amol Balwadkar a BJP rebel candidate declared his support for Chandrakant Patil BJPs official candidate following a raid by IT dept on his brotherinlawSanjay Patil a researcher in dept of civics, politics at University of Mumbai said BJP appears vulnerable, not confident of winning the polls In 2014 it fought on its own, emerged as the single largest party in the state In 2019 despite an alliance with Sena BJPs seats went down from 122 to 105 It also failed to negotiate a deal with its oldest ally For last five y ears it could not have its chief minister in the state
Published in The Times of India (Online) (31.10.2024)