India, April 21 -- Within a month of former Pune MLA Ravindra Dhangekar deserting the Congress for the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, another influential leader from Pune district is set to leave the grand old party. Sangram Thopte, a three-term legislator from the Bhor assembly constituency, on Sunday declared that he would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) later this week.

"I will join the BJP along with my supporters on April 22 in Mumbai, in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule and working president Ravindra Chavan," Thopte told reporters.

The Congress does not have a single MLA from Pune district in the current assembly, though it had three legislators in the previous term. Th...