NCP deserters will bite the dust in Maharashtra polls: Malik

The NCP leaders who have switched loyalty to the ruling camp will suffer defeat in the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly polls, chief party spokesman Nawab Malik said on Thursday.

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.

The NCP has of late witnessed desertion by a slew of its key leaders, including ex-Maharashtra ministers Ganesh Naik, Jaydatta Kshirsagar and Sachin Ahir, Satara MP Udayanraje Bhosale, MLAs Shivendrasinh Bhosale, Sandeep Naik, Vaibhav Pichad and Pandurang Barora - all of them either joining the BJP or the Shiv Sena.

"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 pollslikewise; the NCP will ensure 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.