Maharashtra Assembly Election 2019: In a big setback to Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party leader and former MP Sanjay Dina Patil on Friday joined Shiv Sena in presence of party chief Uddhav Thackeray. Patil was a member of 15th Lok Sabha from Mumbai North East constituency in Maharashtra. He, however, had lost the Lok Sabha polls in 2014.

The NCP has lost a string of leaders to either BJP or Shiv Sene in the last few months. Last month, NCP MP from Satara Udayanraje Bhosale and former state minister Ganesh Naik joined the BJP. Before this, former cabinet minister Rana Jagjitsinh Patil and former MP Dhananjay Mahadik had left the NCP to join the saffron party. The NCP has also lost its three former state presidents to its rival parties in the state.

The NCP is fighting this election in alliance with the Congress. Both the parties are contesting on 125 seats each. But none of the parties appears to be in a state where they can put up a tough fight to united BJP and Shiv Sena. Like NCP, the Congress too has lost several leaders to the BJP or Shiv Sena following the humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha.

The bigger worry for the Congress in the state is to get its fighting factions together. Today, former Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam predicted a very poor performance of his party’s candidates in the upcoming election. On Thursday, he threatened to quit the party if the situation continues in the state unit.

“It seems Congress Party doesn’t want my services anymore. I had recommended just one name in Mumbai for Assembly election. Heard that even that has been rejected. As I had told the leadership earlier, in that case I will not participate in the poll campaign. It’s my final decision,” he said in a tweet.