BJP's Navnath Ban attacks Ravindra Dhangekar as 'monkey-brand' leader after MLC poll loss in Pune

A dispute has broken out within the Mahayuti after the Legislative Council results. BJP leader Navnath Ban has blamed the Shinde faction for the defeat in the Council poll. Over the BJP's loss in the Pune graduates' constituency, Ban made serious allegations against Ravindra Dhangekar of the Shinde faction. The BJP alleges that Dhangekar's role harmed the party.

Ban and Dhangekar exchanged sharp charges over the result, and both leaders criticised each other. On Friday, too, Ban launched a bitter attack on Dhangekar, calling the Shinde faction leader a "bandarchhaap who has hopped across twelve parties".

Ban said, "The man who went around 12 parties and then entered the Shiv Sena, this twelve-party-hopping bandarchhaap, is criticising Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP and me in very low language. A man who could not build a career in one party went around twelve parties and came to the Shiv Sena to build one." According to Ban, the people of Pune have been shown this bandarchhaap brand.

Ban went on, "The people of Pune sent this bandarchhaap-brand man home. In the Assembly too, the bandarchhaap was sent home. When the Pune Municipal Corporation election was held, two members of the family lost their deposits. Such a man is criticising the BJP and Chief Minister Fadnavis. He could not save his son's deposit in the Pune Municipal Corporation. All I have to say to him is that he should not teach the BJP wisdom."

Ban also said, "Behind me is the lotus. Behind it come the hand, the railway engine, the bow and arrow, and tomorrow the whistle. Nobody in any party valued you. First the Congress, the MNS and the Shiv Sena, tomorrow you will go to the UBT. I was a worker of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad for 12 years. After that I did journalism. I am working with the BJP's lotus in my hand. I did not come to set up a career by changing 12 parties and symbols as you did. He hops around twelve parties because his career is not set. Now he is leaping about like a monkey." Ban said that no attention should be paid to a bandarchhaap man.