Milind Deora recently quit the Congress and joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena (File)
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday claimed the BJP is staring at defeat in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and hence trying to lure leaders from other parties as its own survey shows opposition bloc MVA will win over 40 of the 48 seats.
Mr Patole alleged the BJP is trying to wean away mass leaders from the Congress and referred to a statement made by his party colleague and former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde about an "offer" from the saffron outfit.
Attacking the BJP, the Congress MLA said the saffron party has no ideology, is solely driven by pursuit of power and believes in robbing people's hard-earned money.
Mr Patole said the BJP's internal survey shows more than 40 MPs of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will be elected in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and so efforts are being made by it to lure leaders from other parties.
The MVA is a state-level alliance of the Congress, the NCP (Sharad Pawar group) and the Shiv Sena (UBT), all of whom are constituents of the opposition INDIA grouping.
Mr Patole claimed the ground is shifting beneath the BJP's feet and the big question before it is how to get its candidates elected from Maharashtra, which sends 48 members to the Lok Sabha, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh (80 seats).
"They are trying to find out how mass leaders of the Congress can come over to the BJP. Senior party leader and former Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has publicly stated that the BJP had made an offer to him, but he has made it clear he will not leave the Congress. This shows how much the BJP is tempted by power," said the MPCC president.
"The BJP has no leaders and no candidates (for polls), they have many leaders from the Congress and other parties. The current state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule was once in the Youth Congress," Mr Patole said.
Asked about former Congress leader Milind Deora, who has joined the ruling Shiv Sena, Mr Patole said his family was associated with the grand old party for more than 50 years and Deora himself went on to become an MP and then a Union minister.
"While all this was there, Milind Deora did not think negatively about the Congress and now suddenly he feels that way. Mr Deora said he joined the Shinde Sena (led by CM Eknath Shinde) for development agenda, but in reality he left the Congress as his personal development had stopped. The Congress and its leadership are always positive...the country comes first for the Congress," he asserted.
Speaking about the Filmfare Awards ceremony being moved to Gujarat this time from its traditional venue Mumbai, he said Maharashtra has lost prominent projects to the adjoining state.
"Whenever (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi visited Maharashtra, he took something from Maharashtra and gave it to Gujarat. Is he the Prime Minister of the country or just Gujarat? Earlier, Vedanta-Foxconn and Tata-Airbus ventures went out of Maharashtra, an international financial centre and diamond industry moved from Mumbai to Gujarat. Now, he has taken Mumbai's Filmfare Awards to Gujarat, too," said Mr Patole.
Maharashtra is being looted and the state government acts on direction of the "Gujarat lobby", he alleged.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)