Mumbai: After Ganesh Naik expressed unhappiness over denial of ticket from his traditional constituency Belapur, his son Sandeep Naik has offered his own seat Airoli to his father.
The BJP has reportedly agreed to this offer by Sandeep and now Ganesh Naik will contest from Airoli. Generally, a father sacrifice for his son but in today’s politics, a son had to sacrifice for his father.
Airoli is bastion of Naik family. Naik who suffered shock of defeat by BJP’s Manda Mhatre in Belapur constituency in Navi Mumbai in 2014 assembly election had recently joined BJP.
It was expected that he would get the BJP candidature from Belapur. But immediately after his joining, he was not properly received by BJP leadership. When he attended BJP’s programmes in Thane, he was not called on stage and was made to sit as an audience.
This was the first signal by BJP about his importance to party. Mhatre was very aggressive about his candidature. Both Naik and Mhatre belong to Aagari community which is in large number in Navi Mumbai and Thane district.
It is clear that BJP candidates in Thane and Navi Mumbai may get damaged if Naik did not work whole-heartedly. He was not initially inclined to join BJP.
But his legislator son Sandeep Naik convinced him to join BJP. The denial of ticket by BJP is said to have ignited fighting within Naik family. Sensing this, Sandeep himself decided to sacrifice his own seat for his father. After BJP agreed to this, now issue is said to be resolved.
