Mumbai(Maharashtra): Former Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Harshavardhan Patil joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) today.
Patil, joined the BJP at an event in south Mumbai, in presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who said he was waiting for the former minister to join the Amit Shah-led for the last five years.
"People are attracted to BJP due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision," Fadnavis said.
The four-time MLA from Indapur in Pune district had lost the 2014 Assembly elections by a slender margin to the NCPs Dattatrey Bharne.
The Congress and NCP had contested those elections separately.
He had supported NCP MP Supriya Sule to ensure her victory from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat this year in the hope that the Sharad Pawar-led party would back his candidacy in the upcoming Assembly polls from Indapur, a segment of the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.
He tweeted, "Beginning of the new season !! Today, I joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for development of Indapur."
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आरंभ नवीन पर्वाचा !!
— Harshvardhan Patil (@Harshvardhanji) September 11, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
आज इंदापूरच्या विकासासाठी भारतीय जनता पक्षात प्रवेश केला.@Dev_Fadnavis @ChDadaPatil @BJP4Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/bNthZWG7I6
">आरंभ नवीन पर्वाचा !!
— Harshvardhan Patil (@Harshvardhanji) September 11, 2019
आज इंदापूरच्या विकासासाठी भारतीय जनता पक्षात प्रवेश केला.@Dev_Fadnavis @ChDadaPatil @BJP4Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/bNthZWG7I6आरंभ नवीन पर्वाचा !!
— Harshvardhan Patil (@Harshvardhanji) September 11, 2019
आज इंदापूरच्या विकासासाठी भारतीय जनता पक्षात प्रवेश केला.@Dev_Fadnavis @ChDadaPatil @BJP4Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/bNthZWG7I6
In the event, Patil was accompanied by his daughter Ankita, a member of Pune Zilla Parishad and his son Rajvardhan.
Patil served as minister of state for agriculture and marketing in the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government during 1995-99.
He won the 1995 Assembly election as an independent candidate.
He served as minister during the Congress-NCP alliance government from 1999 to 2014.
He joined the Congress in 2009 and was the Cooperation and Parliamentary affairs portfolios.
Fadnavis indicated that Patil will be BJP's candidate from the Indapur Assembly seat in next month's election.
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