While Singh said he hadn't decided next step, former Congress leader Harshwardhan Patil will be inducted into BJP today
Kripashankar Singh
Seat refusal trigger
In a repeat of the pre-Lok Sabha polls defection of a Congress leader because of the Nationalist Congress Party's refusal to part with the seat, Congress heavyweight from Pune district Harshwardhan Patil has decided to join the BJP. In a similar denial, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil's son Sujay had gone to the BJP and won a local Lok Sabha seat. The father followed the son after the elections and was made a minister in the Fadnavis government.
Patil was promised Indapur which he had lost to NCP in 2014 for contesting the October polls on a condition that he would work for getting Supriya Sule elected from Baramati. Sule scored a good lead from Indapur, one of the Assembly segments of Baramati, paving way for Patil to ask NCP to fulfill his demand. But since NCP started campaigning for its sitting MLA, a furious Patil struck a deal with BJP. The Congress and NCP began damage control after Patil announced his decision to supporters last week. Congress said the NCP was willing to accommodate Patil in Indapur, but the former minister had made up his mind. He went incommunicado and refused to take calls from Congress high command.
Patil's induction is slated a couple of hours before NCP veteran Ganesh Naik, his elder son Sanjeev and 55 Navi Mumbai corporators are taken into the BJP fold. Patil's daughter Ankita who won a Pune zilla parishad by-election two months ago might also join the party later.
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