NCP deserters will bite the dust in Maharashtra polls: Malik

After facing setbacks, Nawab Malik, an NCP spokesperson said that leaders who have switched loyalty to the ruling camp will suffer defeat in the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly polls. Ahead of Maharashtra's assembly elections, several leaders from NCP have left the party and many of them have joined BJP and Shiv Sena. NCP has therefore chosen to field new faces, especially youngsters, against those who left the party. NCP is also ready to field the people who left BJP to join them in the upcoming elections. 

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The defeat of the deserters ensured 

Hordes of prominent NCP leaders have been jumping the ship from NCP to either BJP or Shiv Sena before the Maharashtra Assembly Election. This includes ex-Maharashtra ministers Ganesh Naik, Jaydatta Kshirsagar and Sachin Ahir, Satara MP Udayanraje Bhosale, MLAs Shivendrasinh Bhosale, Sandeep Naik, Vaibhav Pichad and Pandurang Barora.  Seeking to drive home his point, Malik cited the example of 52 lawmakers severing ties with now-NCP president Sharad Pawar to join the then ruling Congress in 1980 but tasting defeat in the 1985 state elections. The former minister said the NCP will ensure defeat of those who have left the opposition party for power.

"There is a precedent. In 1980, 52 of the 56 MLAs supporting him (Pawar) quit while he was abroad for some days. "But those who left him lost the subsequent Assembly polls likewise; the NCP will ensure the defeat of those who have left the party for power," said Malik, who is also chief of the party's Mumbai unit.

The NCP will be contesting the Assembly polls this time in alliance with the Congress and other like-minded parties. In 2014, the Sharad Pawar-led party had snapped ties with the Congress after sharing power with it for 15 years in a row in Maharashtra. It had contested 278 of the 288 assembly seats then and won 41 of them.

NCP-INC re-kindled alliance

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar had recently said that the NCP and Indian National Congress (INC) will contest 125 seats each in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls. He also said that the remaining 38 seats will be given to smaller allies across the state. The two parties will continue their alliance for these elections and will fight for the 228 seat assembly together. The dates for the elections have not been announced yet by the Election commission, but the polls are likely to be conducted in the month of October. The NCP chief, however, specified that the details of the seats which will be contested are yet to be discussed and decided. 

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