MUMBAI: Former MLA and Prahar Janshakti Party leader Bachchu Kadu on Thursday joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and became a Sena candidate for the MLC polls. On Wednesday, Kadu had hinted that he was open to negotiations on his Prahar Janshakti Party’s merger with the Sena. Kadu said Shinde has accepted all the conditions he had set for joining the party. “I am taking up the bow and arrow of Shiv Sena. There has been a lot of discussion about this. Sena has accepted all our demands. I am taking this decision only after all the demands like the revision in minimum support price for farmers, the issue of widowed sisters among the beloved sisters, and strengthening the ministry of Divyang persons. I will continue to work honestly. We will continue to work honestly to strengthen the Sena. But in return, we need the strength of farmers and the disabled. There will be no compromise on that. The Ministry of Divyang could be set up under Shinde’s leadership. But work should be done to strengthen it,” Kadu said. Kadu, who lost the 2024 Assembly polls from the Achalpur constituency, was appointed in 2023 as chairperson of the state-level committee of the Divyang Welfare Department with the rank of a cabinet minister. In January 2025, he resigned from the post, citing the government’s ineffectiveness in implementing substantial work for the holistic development of the differently-abled as the primary reason for his resignation. Kadu was one of the independent MLAs who had backed the Eknath Shinde-led split in the Shiv Sena in 2022 and had travelled to Guwahati with rebel Sena MLAs. He was a Minister of State (MoS) in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. Kadu explained the future of the Prahar Janshakti Party. “Prahar Social Organization and Prahar Divyang Organization will continue. Prahar Social Organization will remain in Maharashtra. Those who want to do political work will join the Sena and those who want to do social work will remain in the Prahar organization. We will work with full strength to grow Sena. But every drop of blood will run for the party as much as it will run for the farmers, laborers and divyangs,” Kadu said.
