Three BJP legislators in Maharashtra join NCP

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got a boost when three legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra joined the party on Thursday, a top NCP leader said.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got a boost when three legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra joined the party on Thursday, a top NCP leader said.

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The three are Baburao Pacharane (Shirur constituency), Suresh Dhas (Aashti), and Prakash Solanke (Majalgaon), said state NCP chief R.R.Patil.

Dhas and Solanke belong to Beed district, the home turf of senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde.

Besides the three BJP legislators, former Shiv Sena legislator Nandkumar Kale from Goregaon (a constituency in north-west Mumbai), currently with the Congress, joined the NCP, he said.

Patil told mediapersons Thursday evening that the three submitted their resignations to Assembly Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar.

Two days ago, five sitting legislators, including three from the Shiv Sena, joined the Congress.

They included heavyweights like Vinayak Nimhan (Shivajinagar), Manikrao Kokate (Sinnar) and Rajendra Raut (Barshi) - all from the Sena and close to senior Congress leader and state revenue minister Narayan Rane.

In addition, the Congress also secured the support of Independents Satej Patil (Kolhapur) and Sadashiv Patil (Khanapur), and a former NCP legislator from Ausa, Kisanrao Jadhav, also joined the party.