Latur, Former BJP MLA Sudhakar Bhalerao on Thursday joined Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (SP).

Bhalerao, a former MLA from Udgir in Latur, went to the BJP office, submitted his resignation from the party and then joined the NCP (SP) at a function at the YB Chavan Center in Mumbai. Sharad Pawar and other NCP (SP) leaders like Supriya Sule and Jayant Patil attended the event.

Bhalerao won the 2009 and 2014 assembly elections from Udgir, but in the 2019 elections, the BJP replaced him with Anil Kamble. Kamble lost to undivided NCP's Sanjay Bansode, who is now with the Ajit Pawar faction and is the state sports minister.