BJP activists oppose Sujay Vikhe-Patil’s possible entry

Mumbai: Sujay Vikhe-Patil’s likely entry into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday has ticked off party activ-ists in the Ahmednagar constituency from where he is supposed to get a BJP ticket for the Lok Sabha polls.

Sujay Vikhe-Patil, the son of senior Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, is set to join the BJP Tuesday in presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The development follows the Sharad  Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spurning a request by Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, the Leader of Op-position in the Mahar-ashtra Assembly, to set aside the Ahmednagar seat for his son.

Sujay Vikhe-Patil last week held meetings with BJP leader Girish Mahajan. However, party activists have demanded that the BJP should not give him a ticket.

The supporters of Dilip Gandhi, the BJP’s sitting MP from the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat, recently prot-ested in front of Mr Fa-dnavis during the par-ty’s parliamentary board meeting in this reg-ard. Raising slogans ag-ainst the Vikhe-Patil family, they demanded that Sujay Vikhe-Patil should be allowed to work for the party for five years before considering him as a candidate.

The Vikhe-Patil family has a stronghold in the Nagar district and their entry is likely to benefit the BJP in a major way.