Some prominent Opposition leaders who had joined the ruling BJP or Shiv Sena, including Cabinet Minister Jaydutt Kshirsagar, have bitten the dust as the Maharashtra Assembly poll results came in on Thursday.
Kshirsagar, fighting on Shiv Sena ticket, was defeated by his nephew and NCP candidate Sandip Kshirsagar.
Vaibhav Pichad, son of former NCP Minister Madhukar Pichad had joined the BJP few days before the election. He lost to Dr Kiran Lahamate of the NCP by 57,689 votes from Akole seat.
Interestingly, Lahamate was a BJP worker for many years and had been in the camp opposed to the Pichad family. Irked with State BJP's decision to induct Vaibhav, Lahamate joined the NCP and won the election.
Two MLAs who had joined the Shiv Sena before the polls, namely, Pandurang Barora and Nirmala Gavit, also lost the elections from Shahapur and Igatpuri, respectively.
Barora was an NCP MLA and Gavit a Congress legislator.
Former Minister Harshvardhan Patil, who switched sides from the Congress to the BJP so that he could contest from his home turf, Indapur, lost to the NCP's Duttatray Bharane.