Sachin Ahir, NCP’s Mumbai chief, joins Shiv Sena ahead of Maharashtra assembly elections

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In a major setback to the Nationalist Congress Party, its Mumbai unit chief Sachin Ahir joined the Shiv Sena on Thursday. Ahir was inducted into the Shiv Sena by party boss Uddhav Thackeray and Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray at their residence Matoshree.

Aaditya Thackeray was believed to be instrumental in getting Ahir to join the Sena. The two leaders were in touch since some time.

Sachin Ahir lauded Aaditya Thackeray for his vision for development in Mumbai and Maharashtra and said that he joined the party to contribute to the development. “Ours is a common goal of development. Despite criticism we had a spirit of taking our parties ahead. I wanted to be with the young leadership for development,” Ahir said.

Uddhav Thackeray added that the “strength” of Shiv Sena is growing with induction of leaders from other parties. “We do not break other parties, we win people over,” he said.

Ahir’s induction in the Sena would boost party’s strength in Worli Assembly segment. There are speculations that Aaditya Thackeray will he fielded from Worli, while Ahir maybe fielded from Byculla Assembly segment in the Maharashtra polls.

Ahir was three-term MLA from Worli till 2014 when he was defeated by Sena’s Sunil Shinde. He was minister in successive Congress-NCP governments.

Ahir is the third NCP leader to joini Shiv Sena in the last two months. Two NCP MLAs–Jaydutt Kshirsagar and Pandurang Barora– had jumped ship from NCP to Shiv Sena. Kshirsagar was recently appointed as the employment guarantee scheme minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led state BJP government.