BVA workers made this allegation Tawde had Rs 5 crore in cash For distribution to consolidate votes in the area for BJP’s Nalasopara candidate Rajan Naik. The fight broke out when BVA workers disrupted Tawde’s meeting with BJP workers and snatched his bag full of cash. Some BJP workers reportedly merely “informed him”.
The drama continued for three hours in the hotel as the protesters did not allow Tawde to go out. Police reached the spot and sealed the hotel. Later, Thakur drove Tawde out of the hotel in his car.
Police examined Tawde’s car but said they did not find any additional evidence.
Later, the Election Commission filed an FIR against Tawde on two charges – cash for votes and entering someone else’s constituency.
According to the police, Tawde has now been banned from entering Vasai-Virar till November 23.
“Hitendra Thakur’s politics is situational politics. They (BVA members) have no objection in helping the main alliance on seats other than Vasai and Nalasopara. Yesterday, what happened is that Thakur tried to take the moral high ground – which would have helped him,” said Professor Deepak Pawar, head of the politics department at Mumbai University.
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Thakur family politics
Hitendra Thakur’s political outfit, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi, has consistently won most of the elections in the Vasai-Virar belt.
The Thakur family holds considerable influence in the area, mainly because Hitendra’s brother Jayendra alias Bhai Thakur had established clout for the family in the area. He was notorious for land grabbing, extortion and kidnapping, among other crimes.
In October 1989, Bhai Thakur was charged with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act in connection with the murder of builder Suresh Dubey. Dubey was shot at Nalasopara railway station while he was waiting for a train headed to his hometown Gorakhpur. Subsequently, the police registered a case against Thakur and three others under the now repealed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act or TADA.
In court, the prosecution linked Dubey’s attackers to the Bhai Thakur gang, which operated in the Vasai-Virar region. While the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of six of the 17 people arrested in the murder case, the trial of Thakur and three others in the TADA case was transferred to a Pune court.
Last year, after almost 34 years, the Pune court acquitted him. Bhai Thakur And three others in the TADA case.
Before coming into politics, Hitendra Thakur used to run a dairy farm with his brother. Later, with the BVA, they created a fiefdom of sorts. He has been winning from Vasai seat for the last six times.
Pawar said, “Bhai Thakur led the criminal underworld, while Hintendra Thakur looked after the political scene – thus, the family labor was divided.”
Hitendra has been in active politics since 1988. Earlier he was with Congress and won from Vasai seat for the first time in 1990 on Congress ticket. Later, he formed BVA in the 1990s. According to Pawar, Hitendra then tried to expand his political career by opening colleges and institutes in the area.
Thakur switched his party’s support to the Congress in 2001 and played a key role in the victory of the then Vilasrao Deshmukh government in the state elections. Since then, Thakur has been in favor of the government, irrespective of which party is in power.
In November 2019, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came to power, Thakur decided to support the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance. BVA has three MLAs from Vasai, Nalasopara and Boisar – all in Palghar district.
During the biennial elections for the upper house of the state legislature in June 2022, the BVA reportedly supported the BJP Prasad Lad met Hitendra Thakur,
After the split of Shiv Sena and the fall of MVA, BVA supported the government of Shiv Sena and BJP led by Eknath Shinde. According to the MVA, the move was prompted by the seizure of assets worth Rs 34 crore by the Enforcement Directorate Thakur’s Viva Group Regarding money laundering investigation related to Yes Bank. This case pertains to the alleged misappropriation of a loan of Rs 200 crore from Yes Bank.
Hitendra’s son Kshitij became MLA in 2009 after Nalasopara seat came into existence. He holds an MBA from Mumbai University and has completed a course in real estate from Harvard University.
Kshitij won the 2009 and 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections easily by over 40,000 and 54,000 votes respectively, but was given a tough fight by Pradeep Sharma of the undivided Shiv Sena.
In 2013, Kshitij had a public altercation with a police officer on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The controversy escalated so much that a privilege motion was brought against the police officer.
“The Thakurs have always tried to retain land parcels in the Vasai-Virar belt. But real estate cannot expand beyond a limit. Therefore, I think Thakur might have come closer to BJP and Mahayuti, to get other development work done in the area. But, I would not be surprised if when the MVA comes to power, the BVA comes back to support the MVA,” Pawar said.
This time BVA fielded five MLAs. Hitendra and Kshitij are contesting from Vasai and Nalasopara seats respectively. Current MLA Rajesh Patil is contesting from Boisar seat and Hemant Khutade is contesting from Vikramgarh seat.
However, the BVA candidate from Dahanu assembly constituency—Suresh Padvi—announced his support to his rival, BJP’s Vinod Mehta, on Tuesday night. The BJP then roped in Padvi, and another high-voltage drama ended on the same day the BVA leveled the allegation of cash for votes against Tawde.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: How Mahayuti and MVA are fielding rebel candidates across Maharashtra