Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil all set to join BJP

Mumbai: Senior Congress leader and former Opposition leader in the state Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A senior BJP minister on Tuesday said that only formalities remain for his induction into his party.

Water resources minister Girish Mahajan said that Mr Vikhe-Patil might join the saffron party after Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes oath for his second term on May 30. Mr Vikhe-Patil’s entry into the BJP fold would be unconditional, he added.

The Congress leader said that his erstwhile party was unfair to him. His son, Sujay, was elected as the BJP MP from the Ahmednagar seat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

“I campaigned for the BJP candidate, so there is no secret left,” Mr Vikhe-Patil said indicating that he joining the BJP is a foregone conclusion. Following Mr Vikhe-Patil, a few more Congress MLAs in the state could also join the BJP.

Mr Vikhe-Patil had resigned as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the state Legislative Assembly in the run up to Lok Sabha elections. He met Mr Mahajan at the latter’s official bungalow on Tuesday morning. He said he had come to thank Mr Mahajan for the latter’s support in ensuring his son Sujay’s victory from Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency.

“I openly campaigned for my son who contested as a BJP candidate. So, action was taken against me. Denial of a ticket to my son was injustice. This shows the policy of the Congress,” he charged. Mr Vikhe-Patil said he had not resigned as an MLA. “I am not in touch with any MLAs,” he added.

However, Mr Vikhe-Patil said he had met Mr Mahajan, who also holds the medical education portfolio, over the Maratha reservation issue. “I run a medical college. I discussed with him the issue of the court scrapping the Maratha quota for medical courses,” Mr Vikhe-Patil said.

Two days after the Congress president Rahul Gandhi accepted the resignation of Mr Vikhe-Patil as LoP, the leader alleged that the Congress leadership wanted his son to contest Lok Sabha election on an Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ticket.

He had said that seat sharing was decided on the basis of the ‘win-ability factor’ between the Congress and NCP.

“Accordingly, looking at the situation of the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency, the NCP should have given this seat to the Congress party for the candidature of Dr Sujay Vikhe-Patil. Dr Sujay was working in the constituency since the past three to four years. But the NCP deliberately did not give this seat to the Congress party, Mr Vikhe-Patil had said while addressing a press conference at his hometown Loni in Ahmednagar district.

He had also that he tried to get the seat for the Congress from the NCP till the last moment.