Union home minister and BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday took a dig at the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after a number of leaders from the Opposition parties joined the saffron party in Maharashtra ahead of the Assembly elections, PTI reported.

Shah made the remarks at a public meeting in the south Maharashtra city of Solapur. “If the BJP opens its door completely, except Sharad Pawar and Prithviraj Chavan, no one will remain in their respective parties,” the home minister said. Pawar is the president of the Nationalist Congress Party, while Chavan, a Congress leader, is a former chief minister.

“When the Congress-NCP alliance was in power in the Centre and the state, the 13th Finance Commission provided the state only Rs 1,15,000 crore while the Modi government, under the 14th Finance Commission, doubled the amount provided to Maharashtra and gave Rs 2,86,354 crore.”

In July, three MLAs from the Nationalist Congress Party and one from the Congress joined the BJP after resigning from the state Assembly. The NCP legislators who switched allegiances were Shivendraraje Bhosale, who represented Satara, Sandeep Naik from Airoli (Navi Mumbai) and Vaibhav Pichad from Akole in Ahmednagar district. The only Congress MLA who switched to the BJP was Kalidas Kolambkar, who represented Wadala in Mumbai in the Assembly.

Sharad Pawar has accused the saffron party of forcing leaders in the Opposition to join their party by using investigating agencies.

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