BJP’s Navi Mumbai district president Sandeep Naik joined the NCP (SP) in presence of state party Chief Jayant Patil on Tuesday. He will be contesting the Belapur assembly constituency as an NCP (SP) candidate now. His father Ganesh Naik, who is the BJP candidate from Airoli assembly constituency, had already made it clear that Sandeep is free to take his own decisions.
While leaving the party Sandeep blamed the BJP leadership of not keeping promises made to him while he joined the party in 2019. However, according to some of the close associates of the Naik family, the real reason behind the latest move is the Naik family’s desire to keep its hold on the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) intact.
Ganesh Naik had been an undisputed leader of Navi Mumbai for around 40 years now. He had been able to maintain control over the municipal corporation since 1995. His elder son Sanjeev was the first Mayor of the city. Between 2004 and 2014 Naik family held all the key posts of people’s representatives in the city like the two MLAs, an MP and the Mayor. In 2014 Ganesh Naik lost to Manda Mhatre, former NCP MLC who had by then switched to the BJP. Sandeep Naik, who had contested from Airoli had won back then and was the only representative of the Naik family who was holding any post as people’s representative between 2014 and 2019.
Ganesh Naik too eventually joined the BJP along with his supporters in the NMMC and the corporation too came under the BJP. According to Sandeep Naik, the BJP leadership had promised to give two assembly seats and a parliamentary seat in the family but didn’t keep the word.
In 2019, the BJP chose Manda Mhatre for the Belapur assembly constituency and she won with a thumping lead of 43,500 votes against a weak Congress candidate. BJP insiders say that the leading margin won her the party ticket for the constituency this time also.
For the Naik family is important to hold both the assembly seats in the city to be able to keep control over the city municipal corporation, where the elections are likely to happen sometime early next year. That is the reason whey Sandeep Naik had started preparing to contest assembly from Belapur for past some time. Since he didn’t get the BJP ticket from the constituency, he shall now do so from the NCP (SP). If he wins, the family’s hold on the corporation will remain intact.
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