Senior Congressman Harshavardhan Patil on Wednesday hit out at Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), dubbing its leadership as “scheming” and “shifty”.
Addressing a meeting of his followers in his stronghold Indapur in Pune district, Mr. Patil was lavish in his praise of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis while heaping censure on Mr. Pawar saying NCP had “insulted him” and had used him for their political ends.
While political observers saw this as a strong indication of Mr. Patil joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, he stopped short of a formal announcement on this.
Mr. Patil, a four-time MLA from Indapur, lost the 2014 Assembly elections by a slender margin to the NCP’s Dattatrey Bharne. The Congress and NCP had contested those elections separately.
Despite this, he had supported NCP MP Supriya Sule (Mr. Pawar’s daughter) to ensure her victory from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat this year in the hope that the party would back his candidacy in the upcoming Assembly polls from Indapur, which is a segment of the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.
However, the NCP’s disinclination to cut the ticket of their sitting MLA (Mr. Bharne) and support Mr. Patil’s candidacy has rankled the Congressman.
“All of you [Mr. Patil’s followers] have worked loyally these past months, adhering to the coalition ‘dharma’ between Congress and NCP. Yet, we have received only ingratitude in return…The [Lok Sabha] results were out on May 23. Today is September 4. Even after four months, despite several meetings, not one NCP leader has ever talked about Indapur Assembly seat,” said Mr. Patil, a former State cabinet Minister.
“Indapur was not even included in the itinerary of the NCP’s ‘Shiv Swarajya Yatra’. Yet, why are its leaders holding rallies here? Now, I hear in a seat-sharing arrangement decided in Mumbai that Bhor, Junnar and Purandar is to be given to the Congress while Indapur remains with the NCP. This is a stab in my back in spite of the help I had given to NCP,” he said.
When Mr. Patil asked his followers on what course of action was to be taken, shouts of ‘join the BJP’ rent the air.
“Your sentiments will be fully respected and what you’ll wish for shall come to pass,” he told his supporters.
Lavishing praise on Mr. Fadnavis, he said: “Even though I was not in power for these years, Mr. Fadnavis has never rejected any request on my part, however small it may have been.”
He further said that Mr. Fadnavis, in a gracious gesture, had even postponed a meeting of the State cabinet to recently launch a book of reminiscences, Vidhan Gatha authored by Mr. Patil.
While Mr. Patil’s defection is expected to be a major setback not only for an already-battered Congress-NCP coalition in western Maharashtra, he could prove to be a threat in Mr. Pawar’s sronghold Baramati.
Prior to his show of strength in Indapur, the senior Congressman visitedo estranged NCP leader and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, who recently joined the BJP, at the latter’s residence in Akluj in Solapur.
