In a jolt to the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, its senior leader and Mumbai president Sachin Ahir joined the Shiv Sena on Thursday. Ahir join Shiv Sena in the presence of party president Uddhav Thackeray.
Sachin Ahir was heading the NCP’s Mumbai unit since 2015. There were rumours of him being in touch with senior BJP leaders. His joining Shiv Sena has come as a surprise for many in the NCP.
The move just ahead of the Maharashtra polls assumes significance amid speculations that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya is likely to contest from Worli seat in Mumbai. Ahir was three-term MLA from Worli till 2014 when he was defeated by Sena’s Sunil Shinde. He was minister in successive Congress-NCP governments.
NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik refused to comment on the issue.
Ahir is the third NCP leader to joini Shiv Sena in the last two months. Two NCP MLAs–Jaydutt Kshirsagar and Pandurang Barora– had jumped ship from NCP to Shiv Sena. Kshirsagar was recently appointed as the employment guarantee scheme minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led state BJP government.
In the past five years, former minister Dr Vijaykumar Gavit, his daughter and MP Heena Gavit, former ministers Babanrao Pachpute, Sanjay Savkare, Suresh Dhas, Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Kaka Patil and former MLCs such as Niranjan Davkhare, Narendra Patil have left NCP to join BJP.