Mumbai: What do Ajit Pawar, Hasan Mushrif, Sunil Tatkare, Chhagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, and Kripashankar Singh have in common? Not just that they were facing corruption allegations and then associated themselves with the BJP in some way, they were all also in the dock mainly because of the sleuthing skills of the party’s most visible anti-corruption crusader in Maharashtra — Kirit Somaiya.
With most of his targets now linked with his party, Somaiya has gradually abandoned the cases, withdrawn from the limelight after he faced a few controversies of his own, and has been seemingly miffed with his party for not actively backing him up — something he doesn’t want to publicly admit.
Earlier this week, Somaiya stunned state BJP leaders and workers by rejecting his appointment to the party’s campaign committee. In a letter addressed to Raosaheb Danve, head of the Maharashtra BJP’s election management committee for assembly polls, Somaiya said he is already doing a lot of work as an “ordinary” party worker and he found it “insulting” that he was not even asked before being appointed to the campaign committee.
Speaking to ThePrint, the former MP said he was neither upset with the party nor was he trying to make a statement.
“Since 18 February 2019, I have been working as a common karyakarta of the party, shouldering many responsibilities and doing a lot of work, so what is the point of the post now?” he said. “That post is not going to make me stronger, or more capable to work since I am already doing so much. It is in a way an insult to give me this post. Give it to someone else whose capacity to work will increase because of the post.”
The mention of the date “18 February 2019”, is, however, curious. Somaiya had mentioned this date in his letter to Danve as well as in a post on social media platform X Tuesday when he shared why he refused to join the campaign committee.
I thank BJP Maharashtra for appointing Me as Member of Campaign Committee & Expressed REGRET & Inability to do the same
I wrote @cbawankule that for last 5 & 1/2 years (since 18/2/2019) I am doing BJP work as ORDINARY Member & Continue the same & will NOT join Campaign Comitee
— Kirit Somaiya (@KiritSomaiya) September 10, 2024
According to party sources, that was the day when the BJP and then undivided Shiv Sena had held a press conference at Worli’s Blue Sea banquets.
At the event, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had asked Somaiya to leave because the then-leader of the undivided Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray, did not want him there, sources added. This was confirmed, to an extent, by Somaiya in his letter to Danve Tuesday. As BJP’s backroom investigator, Somaiya had grown into one of the Shiv Sena’s staunchest critics and had even taken on the Thackeray family directly, drawing the ire of Sena workers.
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Somaiya’s future turns bleak
Somaiya is a two-time former MP from the Mumbai North East constituency with a taste for activism.
A chartered accountant with a PhD from Mumbai University in Business Policy and Administration, he chose to focus his brand of politics on investigating rival politicians for financial misappropriation.
His team would gather official documents and file Right to Information (RTI) requests to gather ammunition and Somaiya would make a splash with his press conferences about his findings, following them up with complaints to the relevant authorities.
In the 2017 Mumbai civic elections, which saw the undivided Shiv Sena and BJP lead acrimonious campaigns against each other despite being allies at the state level, Somaiya was at the forefront of the BJP’s crusade.
After the 2014 Maharashtra assembly polls, which the two parties contested separately, the Thackeray-led party became a regular target of Somaiya’s barbs.
Back then, Somaiya, in a not-so-veiled remark, alleged that the Shiv Sena was being run by a powerful mafia led by a “saheb” in Bandra. The Thackerays’ residence, Matoshree, is in Bandra. He even alleged that Sena leaders were using a web of shell companies to launder kickbacks earned from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) contracts.
The rivalry reached a peak when Shiv Sena workers allegedly attacked Somaiya during Dussehra celebrations. He had then written to the then Mumbai Police chief alleging there was a plot to kill him.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly polls, relations between then-allies BJP and the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena were already tempestuous. The BJP was still hopeful of forging an alliance without letting the Shiv Sena extract the pound of flesh that it seemed keen to. Among the stumbling blocks to the alliance talks was Somaiya and his possible candidature, sources from both parties had told ThePrint at the time.
On 18 February 2019, as the BJP and Thackeray-led Shiv Sena formalised their alliance for two elections, Somaiya’s future took a bleak turn.
That year, the sitting MP was denied renomination and replaced with Manoj Kotak.
Somaiya quips, Bawankule responds
On Tuesday, in his letter to Danve, Somaiya said, “I have been working as a humble party worker since 18 February 2019, when BJP leaders directed me to leave the joint press conference because of Uddhav Thackeray’s insistence. I took the responsibility of exposing various corrupt practices of the then Uddhav Thackeray government and also survived three near-fatal attacks, but I did my duty.”
Speaking to the media a day later, Somaiya said he has shown that the weight of an ordinary worker is more than leaders such as Fadnavis and Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
In response, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Bawankule said, “Kirit Somaiya ji is our senior leader, but the party leadership doesn’t ask anyone before giving any responsibility. When I was made state president I was not asked either.”
Speaking to ThePrint, Somaiya said that he used such strong words “only because of the differences over his appointment to the campaign committee and the party was not initially willing to listen”.
He continued to attack Uddhav and other Shiv Sena leaders even after the 2019 state polls, raising questions over the landholdings of the former’s wife, Rashmi Thackeray, in Alibaug near Mumbai, alleging these were not mentioned in Uddhav’s election affidavit.
By then, the Uddhav-led Shiv Sena was part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — comprised the undivided Shiv Sena, undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress — and was a clear rival of the BJP.
Anti-corruption crusader who went silent
When the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government was in power, there was a running joke in political circles: “Aim to be so rich and successful in life that Kirit Somaiya will himself come to inspect your property.”
It was a reference to the script that played out in the exact same manner on multiple occasions. Somaiya made graft allegations — usually related to the land, property or business of a rival politician. He would then announce his plans to visit villages where these properties or businesses were located to physically inspect them. Local police would then stop him from reaching the spot. This would make for some sensational prime time TV.
At one such time, in March 2022, when Somaiya planned to visit a resort, allegedly constructed illegally at Dapoli in Ratnagiri district belonging to then Sena minister Anil Parag, the BJP leader even carried a hammer, symbolising his desire to demolish the illegal construction.
Over the course of time, many of the leaders against whom Somaiya levelled corruption charges either joined BJP or became its ally. These include Narayan Rane and Kripashankar Singh who left the Sena and the Congress respectively and formally joined BJP.
Others who made the switch are Ajit Pawar, Mushrif, Bhujbal, Tatkare, who are now part of the NCP (Ajit Pawar), and Ravindra Waikar, an MP of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde). Both parties are part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance along with the BJP.
Meanwhile, Somaiya himself was entangled in controversies of his own.
In July this year, a video allegedly showing him in a compromising position had gone viral on social media, prompting the former MP to file an FIR against a TV news channel for allegedly showing it.
Somaiya was also accused of misappropriating funds collected in 2013 in the name of saving the decommissioned naval aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing ordered a closure report in the case, but a local Mumbai court last month said fresh investigation was needed.
In an interview with ThePrint in May, deputy chief minister Fadnavis, in response to claims that leaders facing corruption allegations were associating with the BJP, had said that the alliance is a political arrangement and does not have any bearing on any corruption charges against leaders and that investigators will do their job.
Speaking to ThePrint Friday, Somaiya did not comment on the issue of his targets now being his colleagues. “The day I stop working the way I do, you can ask me that question. But I have done my work. You should ask this question to those who haven’t,” he quipped.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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