PUNE Harshvardhan Patil, senior Congress leader and former state minister, will officially join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and state unit president Chandrakant Patil.
Patil has asked his supporters from Indapur taluka to be present for the ceremony today afternoon in Mumbai.
Patil did not respond to HT, but BJP sources in the know, requesting anonymity, confirmed the move.
Patil is from the Indapur assembly constituency and at a public rally last week, attacked the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and its leaders.
Given the Congress-NCP alliance, Patil said he expected the NCP to give up its claim on the Indapur seat in favour of the Congress.
NCP’s sitting MLA from Indapur, Mama Bharne, defeated Patil in the 2014 elections, hence, it is unlikely the NCP will give the seat up.
Patil held many key posts in the state ministry when the Congress and NCP were in power. However, after losing the Assembly elections in 2014, he has since been sidelined in the party.