Major Jolt To Sharad Pawar’s NCP In Maharashtra's Latur As Ex-MLA Sudhakar Bhalerao Shifts To Eknath Shinde-Led Shiv Sena

Latur: In a major political setback for the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), former MLA and party spokesperson Sudhakar Bhalerao joined the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Mumbai on Tuesday evening, accompanied by hundreds of supporters.

The move is being seen as a significant blow to the Sharad Pawar faction ahead of the upcoming local body elections in Latur district.

Bhalerao, who represented the reserved Udgir constituency as a BJP MLA between 2009 and 2019, was denied a ticket by the party in the 2019 Assembly elections. Ahead of the 2024 polls, he joined the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction and was nominated as its candidate but lost by a wide margin.

Following the NCP split and the weakening of Pawar’s faction, uncertainty grew among Bhalerao’s supporters in Udgir over their political future. To safeguard their prospects ahead of the local polls, Bhalerao and his followers joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of Shinde.

Bhalerao, founder-president of the state-level organisation Janadhar Morcha, has a strong grassroots presence and had earlier mobilised a large support base through his Matang Shakti movement.