The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is in for yet another shock as 52 NCP members of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation met at the Mayor's home on Monday. "We want our leader Ganeshji Naik in Mantralaya so that our city can be developed further. We want him to make a decision that we all will follow," Navi Mumbai NCP chief and local corporator Anant Sutar told mid-day.

Sources said that the principal ruling party, BJP, is the first choice for defectors as it would help the Naik family regain control of Thane district and also give BJP a strong leadership in a region dominated by Shiv Sena. Naik's elder son Sanjeev had been Thane's MP and younger son Sandeep is a sitting MLA from Airoli. Naik himself represented Belapur (Navi Mumbai) till 2014 before losing the election to former party colleague Manda Mhatre. Before joining NCP, Naik was with the Sena and served as a minister in the erstwhile BJP-Sena government.