Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde claims BJP twice made overtures to him and daughter

Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde claims he and his daughter received offers to join BJP, which BJP denies.

Veteran Congress leader and former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday claimed that both he and his daughter, MLA Praniti Shinde had received offers to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) even as the Maharashtra BJP refuted Mr. Shinde’s claims.

Speaking during a local programme in Akkalkot in Solapur district, Mr. Shinde, who was also a former Maharashtra Chief Minister for a brief period in 2004, revealed the BJP had allegedly tried to lure him twice with offers to join the saffron party, but that he had firmly declined.

“Despite being defeated in the Lok Sabha elections twice (in 2014 and 2019), the BJP offered me and my daughter Praniti to come over to their side. How can this be even possible? We have grown in the lap of our mother (Congress)…at this age how can I join another party?” the 82-year-old Mr. Shinde said.

The veteran Congressman claimed that “a top BJP leader” had made him the offer, but said that neither he nor his daughter were the sort to switch loyalties. He refused to name who in the BJP had made him the offer.

BJP State president Chandrashekhar Bawankule dismissed Mr. Shinde’s claims, stating that his party had made no such offer to wither Mr. Shishilkumar or Ms. Praniti Shinde.

“I’ll say this with responsibility that no offer has been made to either of them. The BJP has no such need to make such offers,” Mr. Bawankule said.

Following Mr. Shinde’s revelations, the Maharashtra Congress, while affirming the loyalty of the Shinde family to the Congress, claimed that the offers probed that the BJP’s self-confidence in Maharashtra was badly shaken and that they knew they could not win the Lok Sabha election this year without poaching big leaders from other parties.