MUMBAI: Kirit Somaiya has emerged as BJP’s sabre-rattling knight at a time when his party continues to hem and haw on whether to take on the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi or leave the beleaguered three-party alliance to its fate.
Somaiya turned a hero for his party activists when he was detained by Karad police early on Monday. He was on his way to Kolhapur in connection with allegations of financial irregularities he has hurled against NCP minister Hasan Mushrif. Somaiya was scheduled to visit properties owned by Mushrif in Kagal.
Somaiya’s strategy to target MVA ministers Anil Parab and Hasan Mushrif on corruption and submit evidence to the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department is at variance with his party colleagues, who indulge in pure rhetoric against MVA, said BJP watchers. “Whatever the merit of Somaiya’s allegations, he appears clear and precise in his mission. On the other hand, Chandrakant Patil and Pravin Darekar (senior BJP functionaries) keep parroting worn-out lines which lack punch,” said a BJP functionary. “Somaiya has emerged as the BJP’s one-man brigade who can cut the MVA to size ahead of the Mumbai civic elections,” he added.
The police crackdown on Somaiya has left the MVA government red-faced. Many in MVA felt by banning Somaiya from entering Kolhapur district, police turned him into a crusader eager to lock horns with the state government.
The Sena was quick to try and keep CM Uddhav Thackeray out of the controversy. But Sena’s damage-control exercise lacked political savvy. Paying scant regard to the concept of collective responsibility, Sena MP Sanjay Raut said Thackeray had nothing to do with the action initiated by the home department, held by the NCP. Home minister Dilip Walse Patil stood by police, adding he had no knowledge if the CM was briefed. “This must have been embarrassing for the MVA as it showed chinks in its armour,” said a former civil servant.
Interestingly, many in the BJP are flummoxed by Somaiya’s rise. He was denied a party ticket for the 2019 LS elections, and he is considered to be L K Advani’s protege. Somaiya was, under BJP’s post-2014 dispensation, relegated to the sidelines as new leaders arrived on the scene in Mumbai North-East, his constituency.
Somaiya’s loyalists claim his anti-Sena campaign may help BJP consolidate its mercantile-trader votebank in suburban Mumbai ahead of BMC elections.
