Ex-Congress minister Harshvardhan Patil to join BJP tomorrow

In yet another setback to Congress, former state minister Harshvardhan Patil is set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Wednesday.

Patil is unhappy over Indapur Assembly constituency seat, which he had been representing for four consecutive times, going to National Congress Party (NCP) as part of a poll pact.

Speaking to ANI here, Patil said the NCP had promised to vacate Indapur Assembly seat for him but did not stand by their words during seat-sharing negotiations with the Congress.

"They (NCP leaders) had promised to leave Indapur Assembly seat for me. But in past months, despite my repeated attempts, no one from NCP assured me that this seat will be left for me. On the contrary, I came to know that NCP has been planning in full swing to contest the seat. Even Congress leaders are not intervening to ensure that this seat remains in the Congress quota," he told ANI here.

He further said: "That is why my supporters insisted that I leave Congress and join BJP. I am joining the BJP at 3 pm on Wednesday, as per the wishes of my supporters."

Patil said that he did everything to ensure that Supriya Sule won the Lok Sabha polls from Baramati and accused NCP of betraying him.

The Congress leader represented Indapur in the Assembly for four consecutive terms starting 1995. He lost to NCP's Dattatrey Bharne when NCP and the Congress contested separately in 2014 elections.

Patil is not the only one who is joining the ruling party. NCP heavyweight Ganesh Naik is also set to jump boats with more than 50 corporators of Navi Mumbai Municipal corporation.

According to sources, former Congress minister Kripashankar is also in touch with senior BJP leadership and may be seen in BJP camp soon. He resigned from the party on Tuesday, citing his differences with the party on the abrogation of Article 370.