Two Nashik leaders ditch BJP, rejoin NCP

Mumbai: Former Maharashtra minister Prashant Hiray and former Nashik MLC Apoorva Hiray have quit the Bharatiya Janata Pa-rty (BJP) to return to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday.

Just ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the duo joined the NCP along with several of their followers in the presence of NCP chief.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar criticised chief minister Devendra Fadnavis saying he does not run his party on adopted leaders.

Addressing a press conference at NCP Bhavan on Friday, Mr Pawar said that few people were saying that they had adopted a district. “We have parents to take care of us. We don’t need adoptive people from outside,” Mr Pawar said.

The NCP leader added, “We don’t run our households with the help of adopted people. We, the people, run the home with self-sufficiency. We know that the concept of adoption would not work.”