After former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan’s exit, the Congress received yet another setback in the State’s Marathwada region after former MLA Basavraj Patil formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday.
Mr. Patil, a prominent Lingayat community leader from Latur district and a former three-term MLA, joined the saffron party in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister and State BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
Telltale signs that Mr. Patil would be defecting to the BJP had been visible for some time now, given that he had not been active within the party despite being a working president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Patil met with Mr. Fadnavis at the latter’s residence.
Mr. Patil, a tall Congress leader from Latur, first became a legislator in 1999 when he won the Umarga Assembly seat. He then contested the 2009 Assembly election from Ausa is Latur, winning the seat and retaining it in 2014 as well.
However, in 2019, Mr. Patil was defeated by BJP leader Abhimanyu Pawar, a close aide and former PA to Mr. Fadnavis.
