Mumbai, Sep 8 - The Shiv Sena got a pre-election jolt Tuesday when three of its senior legislators joined the Congress.

Ahead of the assembly elections Oct 13, Manikrao Kokte from Nashik, Vinayak Nimhan from Pimpri-Chinchwad, near Pune, and Rajendra Raut of Barshi crossed over to the Congress.

Welcoming them into the Congress, senior party leader and Revenue Minister Narayan Rane said the party would be greatly strengthened by the trio joining it.

Congress ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) may find itself in a quandary with the developments since the assembly constituencies of the three new legislators joining Congress belong to its quota of seats.

Congress insiders claim that the party would now demand all the three assembly seats from the NCP to accommodate the new entrants.