Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana has hit out at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar for alleging that the central government was misusing probe agencies to force rival party leaders to join the BJP and said if that were true then NCP leader's nephew Ajit Pawar would have been the first to join.
Refuting allegations by NCP chief, Saamana in its Monday editorial wrote, "There is a swift current of changing-loyalties in which many are being swayed away. The new definition of democracy calls it the "alive- democracy".
"The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra have been swept away by the bulk switching of the party. Many MLAs of Congress and NCP are lined up for entry into BJP and Sharad Pawar has expressed concerns over it. He had alleged that agencies such as IT and ED are being used to break the legislators from their party. If this pressure was true, then Ajit Pawar would have entered BJP first," the editorial read.
Later in the same piece, Saamana outlined the growing interest of people in joining BJP and has compared it to past Congress trend.
"'Incoming' has increased in BJP in the last five years. This is not because of ideology or policies but due to power and political interest. There was a time when anyone who rose up or was born, went into Congress. Similarly, people are going into BJP now", Saamana said.
Taking a jibe at such switching of loyalties, Saamana has called it a sacrifice and drew comparisons from the time of formation of Janata party to the recent political turmoil in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka etc.
"When the Janata Party was established, the seasoned Congress leader Jagjeevan Ram left his party and joined it. Half of the people of the Janata party were Congress leaders. But we do not call it revolt or switching loyalty and have this tradition of calling it a sacrifice due to national interest or ideological differences," it said.
"Such sacrifices are always ongoing. Recently 10 Congress MLAs in Goa and 10-12 in Karnataka also made a similar sacrifice. In Madhya Pradesh, two BJP legislators made the sacrifice and extended their support to Kamal Nath. In West Bengal, TMC people are ready to get into BJP", the editorial read.
Earlier, former Chief Minister Pawar had alleged that the central government is using central agencies to pressurise leaders of opposition parties to join the BJP.
"Central Government is misusing their power before elections(Maharashtra), pressuring those leaders who are not willing to join BJP. This is not limited to Maharashtra, it has happened everywhere. Maharashtra Chief Minister and his cabinet ministers have been involved in calling many leaders. On the other side, we are getting complaints from many that some agencies are being used like ED, CBI and state government's ACB. These agencies are being used to threaten the public representatives," he said while addressing the media in Mumbai.
( With inputs from ANI )