Will NCP lose stalwart to Cong?

Something is brewing between the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party founder member and leading sugar baron, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, reports HT Correspondent.

Something is brewing between the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder member and leading sugar baron, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil.

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Sources said Mohite-Patil, who is unhappy over being denied a ministerial berth, is in talks with senior Congress leaders.

If a deal is struck, he might join the party in the third week of January in Solapur.

A minister in successive Congress-NCP governments since 1999, Mohite-Patil lost the recent Assembly poll. He contested from Pandharpur as his traditional constituency, Malshiras, was reserved for scheduled caste candidates after delimitation.

Mohite-Patil’s supporters were upset with NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s nephew, Ajit, whose supporter, Bharat Bhalke, defeated Mohite-Patil.

Mohite-Patil was also expecting a ministerial berth but was disappointed.

Mohite-Patil chose not to disclose his cards. “I have not taken any decision,” he said from Solapur.

If he quits, it will be a blow to the NCP in western Maharashtra. The former deputy chief minister controls several cooperative and local-self-government bodies in Solapur, which also houses Pawar’s Parliamentary constituency, Madha.

Sources close to him said he was considering two options — join Congress if it made him a minister in the state government or send his son, Ranjitsinh, to the Congress.

The Congress denied any knowledge of Mohite-Patil’s intention.

“I will not comment on the issue as Mohite-Patil is a senior leader and I don’t want to create any misunderstanding,” state Congress President Manikrao Thakre said on Saturday.

The NCP tried to play the issue down.

“Mohite-Patil has not conveyed any such thing to the party. He is very much with the NCP,” said NCP spokesperson Madan Bafna.