Deepak Dhavalikar, are you trying to bluff the people of Shiroda? The MGP has made its intentions clear on contesting the Shiroda by-poll on the premise that it wants to send a strong message to all MLAs that defection is not acceptable. This comes from a party which at one point of time was in the thick of defections. We need not go too far in history to prove this point. Tourism Minister Manohar Babu Ajgaonkar of the MGP has the dubious distinction of changing parties in quick time. Should we remind Deepak that Babu has defected from Congress to join the BJP and later defected back to Congress and finally settled with the MGP? Where are the political principles and ideologies which the MGP seems to be in hot pursuit now?
How can the MGP president forget the fallout after two of his party MLAs, including himself, who were party to Laxmikant Parsekar’s government, were summarily sacked? How can he forget the bitter acrimony and scorn the MGP heaped on the BJP in the run up to the 2017 polls, only to embrace them once again after the results. Is this a matter of ethics or an end result of sheer greed for power?
If the MGP was committed to fight defections, it should have led by example and pulled out from the coalition instead of going to court challenging resignations of Congress MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte. If the MGP is so firm about morality, ethics, principles and ideologies – terms they so frequently choose to use as per situations, the party leadership should have taken immediate action against Ajgaonkar for his infamous remark “where there is power, there is Babu? Are we to believe that this rule of defections and party-hopping only applies to other parties and not MGP?
When talking about ideologies, Deepak should not forget the covert moves of a MGP merger with BJP in 2018, a situation which literally saw a split in party ranks. He should not forget that there are players within the party which have very scant respect to the leadership and party ideologies and have gone about their own agenda.
If the MGP is indeed serious about fighting defections and want to teach a lesson or two to Shirodkar, the best option would be to support a Congress candidate. MGP is not in a winning position in Shiroda, but could have made a huge difference to the end result going by the poll results of 2017 where their candidate Abhay Prabhu polled 5815 votes.
By throwing himself in the fray even before the by-poll dates are announced, Deepak has only made his political ambitions clear and have sought to use the plank of fighting defections to his advantage. MGP cannot preach against defections with its dubious track record. The ball is back in the court of the people of Shiroda and Mandrem, and they will decide.
