After causing upset in Sangli seat, Vishal Patil rushes to Delhi, seeks to become Cong associate MP

Vishal Patil and his mentor MLA Vishwajeet Kadam on Thursday met Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. Patil handed over the letter of his support to Kharge.

“My family has been part of the Congress for years. My father, grandfather and brother have been members of the Congress party,” he said.

Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said, Vishal Patil will now become the associate member of the Congress. ”He will have to now submit a letter for becoming the associate MP of the Congress to the Lok Sabha secretariat. Only after the Lok Sabha secretariat approves it and issues gazette notification, he can be called the associate MP of Congress…Congress strength in Lok Sabha will then go up to 100,” Chavan said, adding that this process has to be done quickly. In Maharashtra, 13 candidates were elected on Congress ticket. With Vishal Patil becoming the associate member, the Congress strength of MPs will go up to 14.

This morning, Kadam took Vishal Patil to Mumbai where they met MPCC chief Nana Patole and then went to Delhi to meet the Congress leadership.

Patil said his family and the Thackeray family have also been very close. “Our party leaders tried their best to convince Uddhav Thackeray to field me from Sangli. However, somehow things did not work out. My family and Thackeray family have very good rapport. Now that I have been elected, I hope all the misunderstandings between us will end,” Patil said.

Chavan said Uddhav Thackeray had erred in not extending support to Vishal Patil. ”We tried our best, but Uddhav refused to listen,” said Chavan.

Vishal Patil, who is the grandson of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil, was elected from the Sangli Lok Sabha seat. After he failed to get a Congress ticket, he contested as an Independent candidate. He defeated sitting BJP MP Sanjaykaka Patil.

Meanwhile, with Vishal Patil, son of Prakashbabu Patil, former MP, being elected as the MP, the Patil family has given six MPs to the Congress from Sangli seat.

The Sangli seat has so far seen 19 elections including two bypolls for Lok Sabha. Of the 19 elections, two were by won BJP and one by PWP. The rest 16 have been won by the Congress.

Vasantdada Patil, the grandfather of Vishal Patil, had won the Sangli Lok Sabha seat in 1980. Along with Vasantdada, six members of the Vasantdada Patil have won the Sangli seat which speaks about their complete supremacy over the seat.

Vishal’s father Prakashbabu Patil had won in 1983, 1989, 1991, 1999, 2004. Other two members including Madan Patil and Shalinitai Patil had also won the Sangli seat.

Vishal’s brother Prateek Patil had won in 2009. He also later became the Minister of State in the Manmohan Singh Government. He then lost in 2014 elections to Sanjaykaka Patil.