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Former working president of the state Congress and ex-MLA Basavraj Patil Tuesday joined ruling BJP in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
Patil had resigned from the Congress on Monday.
Patil, who hails from Latur district in Marathwada, has represented Ausa assembly constituency in 2009 and 2014. He lost to BJP’s Abhimanyu Pawar in 2019. Since then despite being made the party’s working president, Patil was inactive from the party functioning.
In the last two months, senior Congress leaders Milind Deora, Baba Siddique and Ashok Chavan have quit the party to join the ruling alliance.
Deora after joining the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena was given Rajya Sabha seat while Chavan too was sent to Rajya Sabha after joining BJP. Siddique is now with Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.
Patil, a Lingayat leader from Marathwada, is likely to contest from Dharashiv Lok Sabha constituency.
Reacting to Patil’s exit, state Congress chief Nana Patole said, “We do not know anything about Patil. He has been inactive for a few years now.”
