Decided to join Sharad Pawar's NCP on people's demand, says Maha BJP leader

Pune, Oct 7 (IANS) Defending his move to quit the party and join the Sharad Pawar-led NCP ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly election, BJP leader and former Minister Harshvardhan Patil said on Monday that there was an uprising of people which made him decide to switch over.

"It is an uprising of the people and therefore decided to migrate to NCP(SP)," said Patil, who will be joining the Pawar camp in the day. Patil's daughter and former Pune Zilla Parishad member Ankitta Patil will also join the NCP(SP).

"It was the will of the people and the workers from Indapur. This is an uprising of people belonging to all castes and religions which made me decide to join the NCP(SP). Accordingly, I am joining the party today. Along with me, thousands of my supporters and followers are also joining the NCP(SP)," said Patil.

"During my travels and meetings across the Indapur constituency, they insisted that I should contest the election. They also insisted that I would be in a position to strongly take up and address issues faced by them in the constituency. During the 2019 Assembly election, I lost by 1,500 votes. Had I got that many votes, the result would have been different. That is past now. After all, voters are supreme. Therefore, I have decided to support Sharad Pawar and join his party due to the people’s insistence," said Patil

"I will fulfil the responsibility given by the party in the Assembly elections. The decision regarding my candidature will be taken by the party's top leaders Sharad Pawar, Jayant Patil, and Supriya Sule together," he said.

Patil, who is the chairman of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, was elected four times from the Indapur constituency. He is expected to be nominated by the Pawar camp from the Indapur constituency against the NCP led by Ajit Pawar nominee and the sitting legislator Dattamama Bharne.

"The decision taken by me is limited to my Indapur taluka. I am not a great national leader. The people of the taluk made a strong demand, so I took the decision accordingly. People are important in a democracy," said Patil. To a question whether BJP tried to stop him from quitting the party, he said "no comment".