Cong leader Harshvardhan Patil hints at joining BJP

Accusing the NCP of not keeping its promise of ceding the Indapur Assembly seat in Maharashtra to the Congress, senior party leader Harshvardhan Patil on Wednesday hinted that may switch over to the ruling BJP in next few days.

Speculations have been rife since last few says that Patil, the four-time MLA till 2014 from his stronghold Indapur, may join the BJP as the NCP is not ready to give the seat to the Congress for the upcoming state Assembly polls.

The seat is currently represented by Datta Bharane of the NCP.

"During the Lok Sabha elections (held earlier this year), it was decided in the presence of Rahul Gandhi (the then Congress president) that in the state Assembly polls, the NCP will cede the seat to the Congress and on that basis, we all worked for NCP candidate Supriya Sule and gave her a lead of 71,000 votes," Patil said.

"But, now they are not ready to cede the seat to the Congress as promised, so there is an overall feeling of injustice among people and now the time has come that we should make the decision," he said addressing his supporters in Indapur Assembly segment of Pune's Baramati Lok Sabha seat.

Patil praised Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for helping him to solve the issues people from Indapur, giving strong indications that he may join the BJP.

"During the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP offered me a ticket, but I did not accept it and instead, we worked for Sule and gave her a decisive lead from the constituency, but in return, what have we got?" he asked.

When the former state cooperative minister asked his supporters about their feelings, they started shouting "BJP, BJP, Modi, Modi".

Patil said he respects the emotions of all his supporters and will take a decision "in favour of people of the constituency, their aspirations and the future".

"Everybody knows what kind of winds are blowing in the country...so in the coming days, we will decide the future course of action," he added.

Several Congress and NCP leaders have joining the ruling BJP or the Shiv Sena in recent past.