Have asked 4 Oppn MLAs who wanted to join BJP to wait: Danve

Union minister and former Maharashtra BJP chief Raosaheb Danve on Sunday said four opposition MLAs had met him in order to the join the BJP but he had asked them to wait.

State Assembly polls are likely to be held in September-October and several leaders from the Congress and the National Congress Party have made a beeline for the BJP and the Shiv Sena over the past few weeks.

"Today four MLAs from the opposition met me to join the BJP, I have told them to wait," Danve said while speaking at a felicitation programme here for people from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Addressing the gathering, Danve said he would propose to the Union government that a "caste-based census" be carried along with the regular exercise in 2021.

He said OBCs were demanding such a census for a long time.

Danve claimed the BJP-led governments at the Centre and Maharashtra had worked a lot for the development of OBC communities, including giving Constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) in August last year.