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Amid speculation of switch, BJP's Harshvardhan Patil on Friday announced that he would soon join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) led by Sharad Pawar.
On Thursday, he met Sharad Pawar at his Mumbai residence, fuelling the speculation that he may join the latter in the run-up to the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Patil's supporters have displayed posters in Indapur, Bigwan and other villages urging him to join Sharad Pawar-led NCP SP while some of them have uploaded NCP SP's poll symbol. Patil's daughter Ankitta Patil Thackeray, who is an ex-member of Pune Zilla Parishad, has also changed its WhatsApp status to a "man blowing turah" (a traditional trumpet) which is NCP-SP's poll symbol.
Who is Harshvardhan Patil?
Harshvardhan Patil has been in politics for the last three decades. In 1995, he won the election as an independent candidate. He contested elections again in 1999 and 2004. In 2009, he joined Congress and contested the election, but lost in 2014 because Congress and NCP fought the elections independently, and Patil was defeated by NCP MLA Dattatray Bharne. In 2019, when Congress and NCP contested jointly, Bharne was selected as the candidate from the MVA alliance. As a result, Harshwardhan joined BJP but again lost the election. Now, he has decided to contest the 2024 Assembly elections from the Indapur constituency of Pune on an NCP SP ticket. Patil was disappointed when Ajit Pawar declared Dattatray Bharne's name from Indapur as the Mahayuti candidate.
(With inputs from IANS)
