In a major jolt to Congress ahead of the upcoming Assembly election in Maharashtra, Deglur MLA Jitesh Antapurkar joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday. He along with several of his supporters joined the saffron party in the presence of prominent BJP leaders Devendra Fadnavis, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, and Ashok Chavan. Notably, Antapurkar is known to be a close associate of Chavan.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patoleaid the party expelled its MLAs Jitesh Antapurkar and Zeeshan Siddique. Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, he did not elaborate on the reasons for the expulsion of Siddique and Antapurkar. However, the action comes over a month later it came to light that seven Congress MLAs had cross-voted in biennial elections to 11 seats of the Legislative Council. Replying to a query on and Antapurkar and Zeeshan Siddique, Patole said there was no point in commenting on the two MLAs as they had been expelled by the party.
Maharashtra Assembly elections
With Maharashtra Assembly elections just a few months away, both the ruling NDA alliance and the Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi are actively preparing for the upcoming contest. As per reports, parties within both alliances are engaged in a series of meetings to finalise seat-sharing arrangements. On one hand, political manoeuvring continues within the NDA as seat-sharing negotiations progress, while on the other, a significant meeting is expected within the MVA to address the same issue. It is believed that once the seat-sharing agreements are finalised, the political atmosphere is likely to intensify further.
