BJP gets known faces from rivals on its side, rewards them with BMC election tickets | Mumbai News

Mumbai: It is perhaps the swiftest reward for jumping ship. Rakhi Jadhav, ex-NCP corporator and group leader in the last BMC general body, joined the BJP early Monday afternoon in the presence of BJP Ghatkopar East MLA Parag Shah. A few hours later, Shah posted a picture announcing Jadhav as the BJP’s candidate from Ward 131, the same ward which she earlier represented for the NCP. “Taking inspiration from development works taking place across the city, and that the same should happen in Ghatkopar too, I made this decision to join the party. I felt I couldn’t do justice to the party workers with me; this was among the few reasons why I took this decision,” said Jadhav.In fact, 3 former opposition corporators, including the opposition leader in the previous BMC general body, Ravi Raja, will now be contesting the Jan 15 elections as BJP candidates.The 5-term Congress corporator, Raja, joined the BJP last year on the eve of the assembly elections after being denied a ticket by the party to contest the polls. With his earlier seat in F-North Ward (Ward No 176) now reserved, Raja was nominated from Ward 195 in Dharavi. BJP party workers demonstrated at the Dadar office to protest his candidature, saying they did not know who he was.The move is widely seen as an attempt to accommodate a high-profile turncoat within the party’s electoral calculus. Raja was hopeful of contesting and said he was positive that the party would accommodate him somewhere.In another shift, Devendra Ambekar, a former Congress leader who served as the opposition leader in the 2012 BMC house, will contest from Ward 63 in Andheri. Ambekar earlier switched to the Shiv Sena (UBT) and will now be contesting from a ward that was held by BJP corporator Ranjana Patil in the 2017 civic elections. Together, the moves highlight how party loyalties are being reshuffled as political parties fine-tune their candidate lists ahead of the crucial BMC battle.Ambekar said Ward 63 is from where he had won previously as well. In 2017, though, he lost to BJP’s Rohan Rathod.”It’s largely a part of my old ward, except for a few new areas. I have already filed my nomination form,” he said.Meanwhile, BJP candidates who were issued AB forms late Sunday night and in the early hours of Monday filed their nominations. With the party failing to release an official list of its candidates, Tejinder Singh Tiwana, the party’s Yuva Morcha president, issued a short video announcing his candidature from Ward 47. Tejasvee Ghosalkar, who joined the BJP less than a fortnight ago, announced she was the party candidate from Ward 2.In the island city, party candidates such as Ajay Patil (Ward 214), Santosh Dhale (215), Snehal Tendulkar (218), and Sunny Sanap (219) distributed pamphlets announcing their candidature.BJP Mumbai unit president Ameet Satam said the party gave the go-ahead to candidates on seats which were cleared by Mahayuti allies. BJP and Shiv Sena reached an understanding on the seats. Satam said he would share the official list of candidates.