BHOPAL : Manish Patel, who had contested 2013 Assembly elections from Maihar seat as a candidate of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) joined the Congress on Friday. Patel was in touch with Congress for a long time. BJP too tried to contact Patel but he decided to join Congress.
Patel took membership of Congress in the presence of Congress State President Arun Yadav and then he went to the residence of former leader of opposition Ajay Singh to meet him. Singh has been given charge of Maihar Assembly elections by the Congress.
Congress is likely to field Patel its candidate in elections. Patel said he is not for sale and he had joined Congress because of its good policies. He said Congress is going to win in Maihar. He said he did not join Congress on condition of getting ticket for elections.
In the Assembly elections, Patel stood at third the third position. He got more than 40,000 votes and BJP candidate Rajesh Maharaj merely got 1000 votes more than him. Patel, who is mainly a builder in Mumbai, has his ancestral house in Maihar. He also has a school here.
As far as the population is concerned, Patels are the second biggest community in Maihar after Brahmins. This has made Congress bet on him. BJP too tried to bring Patel but it was not ready to make him party candidate. BJP is going to field Narayan Tripathi.
