Importance of being Sushil Kumar Shinde ahead of Lok Sabha polls as BJP looks for a face in Solapur belt

When senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Sushil Kumar Shinde made the startling claim last Wednesday that he had been approached by the BJP twice to join its fold, he was looking to project the state BJP’s policy of expansion, which would involve the ruling party’s bid to ensure the decimation of the Opposition players, especially the Congress.

Officially, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule has denied the BJP ever making the offer to Shinde. Bawankule on Thursday reiterated, “The BJP has not made formal offer to anybody. Nobody has made any offer to Sushil Kumar Shinde. But if anybody wants to join the BJP because they accept PM Narendra Modi’s leadership and development agenda, we will gladly welcome them.”

The BJP’s playbook seems to be evident: reach out to individual Opposition leaders or “engineer” splits in the Opposition parties as part of its expansion drive.

As a seasoned politician with vast experience — Sushil Kumar Shinde has also been a former Union home minister, and Governor — the Congress veteran would have been a prize catch for the BJP. However, Shinde, for the moment, has chosen to remain loyal to the Congress and the Gandhi family. He said, “There was no question of ever joining the BJP.”

Affirming that Shinde’s allegation has merit, another former Congress chief minister, requesting anonymity, said, “Before the 2019 elections, an RSS/BJP ideologue had subtly indicated I should join them. I had spurned the offer then and there, citing ideological differences.”

Either way, what Shinde and Bawankule’s statements have done is to put the focus on the reserved Solapur Lok Sabha constituency in western Maharashtra which is poised to witness a direct contest between the Congress