Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil likely to join BJP soon in Maha

Mumbai: Disgruntled senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil is likely to follow his son Sujay Vikhe-Patil and join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He will join BJP in a rally at Ahmednagar along with some MLAs, said saffron party sources.

Mr Vikhe-Patil is the Opposition leader in the state Legislative Assembly and his exit will prove to be a huge blow for the Congress, as he is also likely to take his Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) supporters with him.

Ever since his son joined BJP, the state political circle is abuzz with the reports of Mr Vikhe-Patil quitting the post of leader of Opposition and joining the BJP. There were also reports of him handing over his resignation to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on ‘moral grounds’, but he had denied it.

According to sources, supporters of Mr Vikhe-Patil want him to join BJP before May 23 as there is a possibility that Congress might axe him once elections are over. Considering this, he is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party soon.

Mr Vikhe-Patil had earlier said that though he would not campaign for the Congress-NCP nominees in the Lok Sabha polls. His attempts to nominate his son Sujay from the Ahmednagar constituency as a candidate of Congress-NCP failed as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar rejected the  proposal.

Following this, Sujay joined BJP in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and was also nominated by the party from the Ahmednagar seat.

Despite repeated attempts, Mr Vikhe-Patil was unavailable for any comments on this. Senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde said, only he will be able to clear the air. Being the Opposition leader, he is one of the top leaders of the state.

Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil had joined Shiv Sena when the Sena-BJP was in power in 1995, but he later resigned and re-joined the Congress.