After two Congress leaders, two from NCP join Maharashtra BJP

Barely a week after two leaders from the Congress party defected to the Maharashtra BJP, two others from the NCP have joined the ruling party.

Earlier this week, Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, son of NCP stalwart and former deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, joined the BJP. The decision was endorsed by Vijaysinh, one of the most prominent leaders of the NCP in the state.

Interestingly, the senior Patil has also stopped taking calls from senior party leaders and could soon follow suit.

Now, Bharati Pawar, who had contested the Lok Sabha election from Dindori in 2014, is set to join the saffron party in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis today. She is currently a vice president of the state NCP unit.

Pawar, as NCP candidate, had lost to the BJP’s Harishchandra Chavan in 2014. The NCP denied her a ticket this time around, opting to field Dhanraj Mahale from the seat instead.

The developments come a week after Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, had joined the BJP.

Shortly after, Congress MLA from Wadala-Naigaon constituency Kalidas Kolambkar defected to the saffron party.

While speculation was rife that two other senior Congress leaders – former Union minister of state for coal Pratik Patil and former state cooperation minister Harshvardhan Patil – were set to join rival BJP, the leaders have rubbished the claims.

BJP leader and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil said that prominent political families in the state are flocking to the BJP as they feel they have no future in the Congress or NCP.

“The coming week will have more such developments,” he claimed.

The ruling combine of BJP-Shiv Sena had won a staggering 42 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra in 2014.