Upset with Congress-NCP, Vikhe Patil senior too likely to join BJP

MUMBAI: A month after his son Sujay joined the BJP, disgruntled leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil too may join the saffron outfit.

Though Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil denied there was any such proposal, a senior BJP leader confirmed to TOI that he would join the BJP sooner or later. “After his son joined the BJP, Vikhe Patil is facing a piquant situation. He is completely isolated in the Congress. Under such circumstances, he has no option but to join BJP,” the BJP leader said.

BJP strategist and water resources minister Girish Mahajan said that if Vikhe Patil joins the BJP, he is most welcome. “Sujay has joined the BJP. Now it is for his father to take a decision. If he joins, he is most welcome into the BJP fold,” Mahajan told TOI.


Vikhe Patil had told TOI in an interview earlier this week that while he would not campaign for the Congress-NCP nominees in the Lok Sabha elections, he has no plans to join the BJP. “I am not available for the campaign, but I have no plans to join BJP, I am happy in the Congress,” he had said.

Vikhe Patil had wanted the Congress-NCP combine to nominate his son Sujay from the Ahmednagar parliamentary constituency, a seat contested and lost by NCP for the last three consecutive polls. He also took up his son’s case with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and NCP president Sharad Pawar, who rejected the proposal.

When it became clear that NCP would not leave the seat for Sujay, Mahajan spoke to Sujay and offered him a BJP ticket from Ahmednagar. Sujay then joined the BJP in the presence of CM Devendra Fadnavis and is now a BJP nominee.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil had joined Shiv Sena when the Sena-BJP were in power in 1995, but he later resigned and re-joined the Congress.