Another NCP leader set to join BJP in Maharashtra

After the defection of Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, another NCP leader is set to join the BJP in Maharashtra. Bharati Pawar, who had contested the Lok Sabha election from Dindori in 2014, said she would be joining the saffron party in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis here Friday.

Pawar, as NCP candidate, had lost to the BJP's Harishchandra Chavan in 2014. This time, the NCP has denied her ticket, fielding Dhanraj Mahale from the seat instead. She is currently a vice president of the state NCP unit. Earlier this week, Ranjitsinh, son of NCP stalwart and former deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, joined the BJP. Before that, Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, had joined the BJP.

As media reports speculated about other opposition leaders who could be on their way to the BJP, former Union minister of state for coal Pratik Patil denied that he was among them. "I will continue to be with the Congress," Patil told reporters at Sangli. Another Congress leader and former state cooperation minister Harshvardhan Patil also rubbished similar reports. "I am a hardcore Congress worker and will continue to work for the Congress," the leader from Pune district said.

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 BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had won 42 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra in 2014. The NCP took potshots at the BJP Thursday over the latter throwing its doors open to young generation opposition leaders. "When will you have your own children? How many kids you are going to steal?" said hoardings put up by the NCP in Mumbai..

(With inputs from agencies.)