MUMBAI: For BJP, it would be a mini-mass recruitment drive on Wednesday when NCP legislators Shivendra Raje Bhosale (Satara), Vaibhav Pichad (Akole),

(Navi Mumbai) and Congress' Kalidas Kolambkar, along with more than 57 councillors of the

and NCP activists will join the party in the presence of CM

and BJP strategist and water resources minister Girish Mahajan.

Along with these legislators and councillors, NCP leader Ganesh Naik, who is Sandeep Naik's father, may also join BJP. Bhosale, Pichad, Naik and Kolambkar submitted their resignations to the assembly speaker Haribhau Bagde on Tuesday, and they have been accepted with immediate effect, according to legislature secretary Jeetendra Bhosale.

is witnessing an exodus from the NCP and the Congress barely months before the state polls. For NCP president Sharad Pawar, the setback has been a big one. Pawar had expected that in view of strong observations made by him on Sunday, the defectors would reconsider their decision to join BJP, but it appears that they have ignored his appeal. Pawar had accused the BJP of misusing premier central agencies to force the legislators to quit the NCP and join BJP. Pawar had pointed out that while there had been an I-T raid at the residence of a former NCP minister, the head of the women's wing of the party too was joining the BJP.