Sushilkumar Shinde claims to have rejected offer to join BJP

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, March 27

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Senior Congress party leader and former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he has rejected an offer to join the BJP.

Speaking to Congress party workers in his constituency of Solapur on Tuesday, Shinde said a senior BJP leader had approached him and his daughter Praniti with an offer to join the saffron party.

He later repeated his claims before television channels.

“I refused the offer of the BJP leader as the Congress party runs in my blood. I will remain in the Congress till my last breath,” Shinde told the channel.

Shinde’s claims come amidst several senior Congress leaders or their relatives joining the BJP in Maharashtra.

Shinde, who lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to BJP’s Sharad Bansode from Solapur by a 1.5 lakh vote margin, is again contesting the elections.

The BJP have fielded Siddheshwar Shivacharya, a religious leader from the Lingayat community.

Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar has made it a three-cornered contest in Solapur.

The BJP has however denied that it had sent out feelers to Shinde.

Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde denied the BJP has made any offer to Shinde.

“It seems Shinde is eager to join the BJP may be because he has sensed defeat in Solapur,” Tawde told reporters in Mumbai.