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Maharashtra: Ex-Union minister Jaysingrao Gaikwad Patil quits BJP
A prominent Maratha leader from central Maharashtra, Patil represented Aurangabad graduates’ constituency in the council from 1990 to 1998
Former Union minister and three-time Parliament member Jaysingrao Gaikwad Patil, 71, quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday after he was denied a ticket for Maharashtra legislative council elections being held on December 1.
A prominent Maratha leader from central Maharashtra, Patil represented Aurangabad graduates’ constituency in the council from 1990 to 1998. He was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government from 1995 to 1999. Patil was later elected as Parliament member from Beed and served as a minister in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. He quit the BJP and joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2004 and was elected as a Parliament member that year for the third time. He returned to the BJP in 2010.
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“I have been asking for organisational responsibility for more than 10 years, but to no avail. I was fed up with the treatment meted out to me by the party leadership and decided to quit the party. I have not decided to join any party as of now, but my only aim is to defeat the BJP candidate in the graduates’ constituency. I am supporting NCP candidate Satish Chavan to ensure that he is elected at least by 15,000 votes,” said Patil.
A BJP leader called Patil a spent force, who has no base in Marathwada. “The graduates’ constituency needs concentrated efforts of building support among voters for three to four years before elections. He was lacking on that front too. He may join the NCP, but will hardly prove beneficial there too,” the leader said, requesting anonymity.
Former minister Eknath Khadse earlier quit the BJP to join the NCP last month.
