No BJP Role in Op Tiger: Bawankule | Nagpur News

Nagpur: Maharashtra revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Wednesday denied BJP’s involvement in the alleged ‘Operation Tiger’ to poach Sena (UBT) MPs, while shutting the door on a parallel chatter that CM Devendra Fadnavis was Delhi-bound and Maharashtra was due for a change at the top.Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Bawankule said he did not know what Operation Tiger was, who launched it or why. The purported move by UBT MPs to shift to the Shinde camp, he said, was an internal matter of the two Sena factions, and BJP had neither a hand nor a stake in it. “BJP has no relation with this. Let Uddhav ji handle his party, let Eknath Shinde ji handle his. BJP has not touched this issue,” he said.Bawankule was equally dismissive of Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut’s allegation that BJP was offering Rs 25-50 crore per MP to engineer the crossovers. Tying every defection to a cash transaction was wrong and unfair to elected representatives, he said. “Saying an MLA or MP changes sides only for money is not right. There are many reasons why people switch sides. UBT needs to introspect on why its MPs and legislators are walking out, not blame others.“Asked about Sena MLA Narendra Bondekar’s claim that Fadnavis would soon move to Delhi and Shinde would take over as Maharashtra chief minister, Bawankule dismissed it. “Bondekar has the freedom to express his feelings. The people’s mandate is with Fadnavis. He is a strong, active CM and a key political face of a developed Maharashtra. There is no question of discussing the CM post,” he said.Pressed on the fear within the UBT camp that several of its Lok Sabha MPs were already in conversation with the Shinde Sena, Bawankule again returned to the two-Sena framing. “Uddhav ji knows where his MPs are going. Shinde ji knows. BJP, our CM, our party, has nothing to do with it.” People of Maharashtra, he said, would do the eventual political assessment, and whatever they decided would be acceptable.