NCP suffers body blow as Namita Mundada joins BJP

Mumbai: In a major setback to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Namita Mundada, who was earlier announced as the party’s candidate from Kaij constituency in Beed district, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.

Just a few days back, Ms Mundada had hinted at resigning from the Sharad Pawar-led party.

While Ms Mundada had penned a Facebook post stating that she would contest the upcoming election, she nevertheless did not specify anything else. Even as an NCP leader, Ms Mundada group had tried to maintain a distance with Beed district president Bajrang Sonaone and MLC Dhananjay Munde, never sharing the stage with them.

Fighting her first political battle during the 2014 Assembly polls, Ms Mundada had defeated Sangita Thombre of the BJP by a margin of over 40 thousand votes.

This is the second time in the last two years that someone has switched-over or withdrawn from the race after being declared a candidate. In 2018, Ramesh Karad had withdrawn his candidature after the NCP made him a candidate for the Legislative Council poll.