Mumbai: In a major blow to the BJP in Maharashtra ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, sitting party MP from Jalgaon, Unmesh Patil joined the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena on Wednesday April 3 after being denied the ticket from the seat.
Jalgaon MP Unmesh Patil joined the Shiv Sena Thackeray group in Matoshree, the residence of Uddhav Thackeray in presence of the party chief and other senior party leaders.
Targeting the BJP on the occasion, Jalgaon MP Unmesh Patil said, "BJP has no value for the development work I have done. I have done honest work. I have not looked at group, caste, and religion while working in my constituency. I am tired of the politics of revenge. It was not my aim to become MLA and MP,” he said.
Patil also accused the BJP of disrespecting the workers. “We are going to grow Shiv Sena and light the torch in North Maharashtra. I have no conditions,” he added.
BJP has fielded Smita Wagh, a former Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) and former Maharashtra BJP’s women's wing chief from Jalgaon.
Interestingly, Patil had won from the Lok Sabha seat in 2019 parliament elections by an impressive margin of over 4 lakh votes opposite NCP leader Gulabrao Deokar.
Meanwhile, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena while welcoming Unmesh Patil into the party fold said that party chief Uddhavs Thackeray welcomed Patil to the Shiv Sena and expressed his belief that “our real saffron will fly in Jalgaon now”.
