Rohit Pawar dubbed BJP’s ‘Operation Tiger’ an ‘Operation Bazaar,’ alleging the party is poaching MPs to pass the delimitation bill. He claimed BJP is short of MPs and will discard allies like Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar by 2029.
‘Operation Tiger’ is ‘Operation Bazaar’
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MLA Rohit Pawar on Saturday said Operation Tiger should be called ‘Operation Bazaar’ as the BJP needs MPs from other parties to defect in theirs so that the ruling party can easily pass the legislation, including the delimitation bill in Parliament. Talking to the media in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Rohit Pawar stated that a “tiger commands respect”, so this move by the BJP should instead be called ‘Operation Bazaar’.
BJP Short of MPs for Delimitation Bill
Rohit Pawar claimed that “the primary reason behind this ‘Operation Bazaar’ was the BJP’s desire to pass the delimitation law linked to women’s reservation; however, the party fell short by 68 MPs in Parliament, preventing the bill’s passage. He further stated that the BJP’s main objective is to secure a resounding victory in the 2029 elections. As part of this strategy, they had poured all their resources into West Bengal. Citing an example, he noted that “while Home Minister Amit Shah typically spends no more than two days in a state during elections, he stayed in West Bengal for a full 18 days. Despite such an immense effort, his party managed to win by a margin of only 3 per cent.”
Pawar alleged that the BJP poached 20 MPs from the Trinamool Congress and 6 from the Sena UBT (Uddhav Thackeray faction), thereby securing 26 MPs. However, they are still short by 41 MPs, and to bridge this gap, a third so-called ‘Operation Tiger’ or ‘Operation Bazaar’ is now being launched, aimed at poaching MLAs.
Shinde’s Power ‘Comes from Delhi’
Rohit Pawar remarked that whatever power Deputy CM Eknath Shinde possesses has “come entirely from Delhi”. He dismissed the notion that there was any strong coordination between Eknath Shinde and the Maharashtra BJP regarding the poaching of the six MPs. He further claimed that the BJP high command in Delhi is deliberately empowering Shinde to keep senior Maharashtra BJP leaders in check.
Future of Maharashtra Politics
Pawar believed that since the BJP currently needs Members of Parliament (MPs), it will not poach Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) at this stage; instead, such “defections might occur around 2029”.
Rohit Pawar remarked that it clearly implies the BJP will not require anyone’s support in the future. “By the time the elections arrive, the party will need neither Eknath Shinde nor the faction led by Ajit Dada Pawar.”
Pawar predicted that when the Maharashtra Assembly elections take place, MLAs from the Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar factions will break away and contest elections against the BJP. “Ultimately, the contest in Maharashtra will be a straight fight directly between the BJP and the Maha Vikas Aghadi,” he said. (ANI)
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