Harshvardhan Patil
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: In a big jolt to the BJP ahead of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections, veteran politician Harshvardhan Patil, who is a big player in the cooperative sector, called it quits and closed the book with the saffron party and announced his decision to join the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
Patil is the President of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) - a post that he secured after he joined BJP leaving the Congress.
The 61-year-old Patil is considered one of the finest administrators and had served as a minister for close to two decades.
Patil hails from Indapur, which neighbours Baramati, the bastion of the Pawar family.
Patil made the announcement on Friday, a day after he had a closed-door interaction with Sharad Pawar at the latter’s Silver Oak bungalow in Mumbai.
Patil’s departure seems to stem from the internal issues within the BJP-led Maha Yuti, which includes the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
The political rivalry between Patil and Ajit Pawar is not something that is hidden in Maharashtra politics.
Patil is keen to contest the Indapur and has conveyed it to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who calls the shots for the BJP.
However, Ajit Pawar went ahead and declared that Dattatray Bharne, who had won the elections in 2014 and 2019 from the undivided NCP, would contest the 2024 polls.
Patil is a four-time MLA from Indapur in Pune district - 1995, 1999 and 2004 as an Independent and in 2009 from the Congress.
After he joined the BJP in 2019, Patil famously said that he gets "sound sleep" as there are "no inquiries".
Patil lost the 2014 and 2019 polls to Bharne, while being in Congress and BJP, respectively.
"I have been travelling across the Indapur constituency and meeting people from various sections for the last two months… people have been insisting that I should contest the Assembly election,” he said, adding: “I had a detailed discussion with Fadnavis…since the Indapur seat is going to the sitting MLA from Maha Yuti (Bharne), he (Fadnavis) assured me of another option. Though the option would have been feasible for me, it would not have been acceptable to my supporters and people from my constituency.”
“During my meeting with Sharad Pawar, he told me that since my supporters want me to contest from Indapur, I should take a call... I spoke to my supporters and have decided to join the NCP(SP),” Patil said in Pune on Friday.
In the next few days, Patil would join the Sharad Pawar-led party.
Patil's daughter Ankitaa Patil Thackeray, a former Pune Zilla Parishad member, too may join NCP (SP). Ankitaa Patil Thackeray is married to Nihar Thackeray, the grandson of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray and the son of late Bindumadhav Thackeray who died in an accident in 1996.
“We welcome Patil to NCP (SP),” said Sharad Pawar, who is the chief architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
“The family relations between Pawar family and Patil family goes back to six decades…I welcome him,” said Baramati MP and NCP (SP) Working President Supriya Sule.
Patil was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government between 1995-99 in the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance government led by late Dr Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane. After the Democratic Front government came to power, he was a minister in governments led by late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan.