Mumbai: Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) workers, led by party chief Hitendra Thakur and son Kshitij, clashed with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers at a hotel in Nalasopara in Mumbai’s outskirts Tuesday after claiming that they caught BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde ‘red-handed’ distributing cash a day ahead of polling.
BVA workers alleged that Tawde was carrying Rs 5 crore in cash for distribution to consolidate votes in the area for BJP’s Nalasopara candidate Rajan Naik. The altercation broke out when BVA workers interrupted Tawde’s meeting with BJP workers and snatched his bag of cash away. Some BJP workers only allegedly “tipped them off”.
The high-voltage drama came just a day ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections.
Addressing the media Tuesday, BVA workers showed cash-filled envelopes and two diaries, which they recovered. Kshitij Thakur, the incumbent Nalasopara MLA contesting the seat on a BVA ticket for a fourth time, said the diaries mentioned the names of the people who would get some or other part of the cash and the total cash amount. He also claimed that BVA workers recovered another Rs 10 lakh in cash from one of the hotel rooms.
With protesters not allowing Tawde to leave, the drama in the hotel continued for three hours. The police rushed to the spot and sealed the hotel off. Later, Thakur escorted Tawde out of the hotel in his car.
Police checked Tawde’s car but said they could not find any additional evidence.
Later, the election commission filed an FIR against Tawde on two charges—cash-for-vote and entering someone else’s constituency.
According to the police, Tawde is banned now from entering Vasai-Virar till November 23.
“Hitendra Thakur’s politics is but situational politics. They (BVA members) do not mind helping the dominant alliance in seats other than Vasai and Nalasopara. Yesterday, what happened is that Thakur tried to take the high moral ground—which will help them,” said Professor Deepak Pawar, head of the politics department at Mumbai University..
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The politics of the Thakur family
Hitendra Thakur’s political outfit, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, has consistently won most elections in the Vasai-Virar belt.
The Thakur family holds considerable clout in the area, mainly because Hitendra’s brother Jayendra, alias Bhai Thakur, created clout for the family in the area. He was infamous for land grabbing, extortion, and kidnapping, among other offences.
In October 1989, Bhai Thakur was accused of conspiracy in a terrorist act in connection with the murder of builder Suresh Dube. Dube was gunned down at the Nalasopara railway station while waiting for a train heading towards his hometown, Gorakhpur. Subsequently, the police filed a case under the now-repealed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act or TADA against Thakur and three others.
In court, the prosecution linked Dube’s assailants to the Bhai Thakur gang, which operated in the Vasai-Virar area. While the Supreme Court upheld the convictions of six of the 17 persons arrested in the murder case, the trial of Thakur and three others in the TADA case got transferred to a court in Pune.
Last year, after nearly 34 years, the court in Pune acquitted Bhai Thakur and three others in the TADA case.
Hitendra Thakur used to run a dairy farm with his brother before he entered politics. Later, with BVA, he created a fiefdom of sorts. He has won the Vasai seat for the last six terms.
“Bhai Thakur led the criminal underworld while Hintendra Thakur looked after the political landscape—the family labour was, thus, divided,” said Pawar.
Hitendra has been in active politics since 1988. First, he was with the Congress and won the Vasai seat for the first time in 1990 on a Congress ticket. Later, he formed BVA in the 1990s. According to Pawar, Hitendra then tried to expand his political career by opening colleges and institutions in the area.
Thakur extended his party’s support to the Congress in 2001, playing a significant role in the then-Vilasrao Deshmukh government sailing through the state elections. Since then, the Thakurs have been on the side of the government, irrespective of which party helms it.
In November 2019, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came to power, Thakur decided to back the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance. The three MLAs of BVA are from Vasai, Nalasopara, and Boisar—all in the Palghar district.
During the biennial elections to the Upper House of the state legislature in June 2022, BVA reportedly supported the BJP after Prasad Lad met Hitendra Thakur.
After the Shiv Sena split and the MVA fell, BVA extended support to the government of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the BJP. The move, according to the MVA, was motivated by the Enforcement Directorate attaching Rs 34 crore assets of Thakur’s Viva Group in connection with a money laundering probe involving YesBank. The case related to an alleged diversion of Rs 200 crore in loans from YesBank.
Hitendra’s son Kshitij became an MLA in 2009 from the Nalasopara constituency after it came into being. He has an MBA from Mumbai University and has finished a course in real estate from Harvard University.
Kshitij won comfortably in the 2009 and 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections by over 40,000 and 54,000 votes, respectively, but Pradeep Sharma from the undivided Shiv Sena gave him stiff competition.
In 2013, Kshitij entered a public spat with a police officer on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The altercation escalated, leading to a privilege motion against the police officer.
“The Thakurs have always tried to maintain the land parcels in the Vasai-Virar belt. But beyond a point, real estate cannot expand. So, I feel that to get other development work done in the area, the Thakurs might have moved closer to the BJP and Mahayuti. But, I would not be surprised if when the MVA comes to power, the BVA switches back to supporting the MVA,” said Pawar.
BVA fielded five MLAs this time. Hitendra and Kshitij are contesting the Vasai and Nalasopara seats, respectively. Sitting MLA Rajesh Patil is contesting the Boisar seat and Hemant Khutade the Vikramgad seat.
However, the BVA candidate from the Dahanu assembly constituency—Suresh Padvi—announced his support for his competitor, BJP’s Vinod Mehta, on Tuesday night. The BJP then inducted Padvi, concluding another high-voltage drama from the same day the BVA brought the cash-for-vote charge against Tawde.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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