BJP's ship overflowing, bound to sink: Chavan

Attacking the ruling BJP for inducting Congress-NCP leaders into its fold, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday compared the saffron party to an "overflowing ship, which is bound to sink". He said vacancies created in Congress due to the departure of "opportunistic leaders" will be filled with new and fresh talent.

"The state BJP is overflowing with opportunistic people. It will sink...this is for sure," Chavan said in a statement. He said workers are the true strength of the Congress party and not the leaders who quit.

His remarks came within hours of three MLAs from the NCP and one from the Congress joining the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who embarks on his month-long yatra ahead of the assembly polls from Thursday. The three NCP MLAs, who switched their loyalties are Shivendraraje Bhosale from Satara, Sandeep Naik from Airoli in Navi Mumbai, and Vaibhav Pichad from Akole in Ahmednagar district.

The lone Congress MLA is Kalidas Kolambkar from Wadala in Mumbai. Earlier, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil had switched sides to become the Housing Minister in the Fadnavis government. Chavan also targeted Fadnavis saying an overflowing ship is bound to sink and that the state BJP is now full of opportunistic people.

Chavan highlighted a media report saying that Fadnavis will complain to the Centre and the RBI about the disbursal of crop loan, which is only 33 per cent. "It is the duty of the state government to ensure effective disbursal of crop loan. To hide his failure, Fadnavis is trying to deflect the blame by writing complaint letters. Instead, he should take out morchas against banks with Shiv Sena for denying crop loan to farmers," he said.

Chavan said he has written to Fadnavis demanding workshops at village level across the state for tackling complaints of crop insurance payments..