A strong sugar cooperative leader, Harshvardhan Patil, is all set to defect to the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar, because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expressed its inability to field him from his traditional Assembly constituency, Indapur in Pune district, which the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar, a Mahayuti ally, will contest.

Patil started as an independent and became a minister in the Sena-BJP government between 1995 and 1999. He supported the Congress in exchange for a cabinet berth in the alliance government and became a member of the party in his fourth term. He was a minister for four consecutive terms, a feat not many legislators have accomplished.