The Marathi vs. non-Marathi tussle surrounding the new Mumbai unit president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been settled with the election of Raj Purohit, a north Indian. Purohit, originally from Rajasthan, defeated Ashish Shellar by a margin of 15 votes - the final tally was 35:20.
His victory also signals the growing strength of senior leader Gopinath Munde in the party affairs in the state. While Purohit was backed by Munde, Shellar was propped up by party’s general secretary Vinod Tawde. The new BJP chief will formally take charge next week.
“Right from the beginning of the election process there was a debate whether the party should have a Marathi or non-Marathi Mumbai president,” a senior BJP general secretary said. With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls in 2012, the selection assumes a lot of importance.
Those supporting Purohit stated, “It suits the BJP to tap north Indian voters in Mumbai, leaving alliance partner Shiv Sena to stick to the Marathi plank.” Moreover, there was a strong feeling in the party that the election of a non-Marathi went well with the pan-Indian image of the party.
Purohit, though technically an outsider, is no novice in Mumbai’s politics. He was the minister of state for housing in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in 1995. In the 2009 assembly elections he contested and lost from the Colaba constituency to Congress’ Annie Shekhar. Earlier, he represented the BJP successfully for almost three terms.
Sources in the BJP said, “Senior leaders like Ram Naik, Eknath Khadse, Kirit Somaiya and Atul Bhatkhalkar played a key role in mobilising support for Purohit.”
Sensing that the majority was in favour of Purohit, BJP president Nitin Gadkari had no other option but to declare him as the new city chief, the sources added.
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