Granddaughter of Vasantdada Patil joins BJP

Mumbai: Jayashree Patil, the granddaughter-in-law of former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Vasantdada Patil, joined the BJP in presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the state BJP headquarters here on Wednesday.

Jayashree Patil is the last member of Vasantdada Patil family to leave Congress. With her joining the BJP, none of the family members of one of the strongest Chief Ministers of the Congress are anymore with the grand old party. Vasantdada is remembered as the leader who was always connected with the grassroots and he played a crucial role in spreading the Congress party across the state and giving it the tight grip over rural politics through Cooperative movement.

Mrs Patil, who is Vice Chairperson of the Sangli District Cooperative Bank joined the BJP along with hundreds of her followers. She said, she decided to join the BJP for development of Sangli and that she is joining the party without any conditions and that she has not sought any post from the BJP leadership.

“I had rebelled during assembly elections as the Congress party did injustice to us. I’m confident that in the BJP I’ll get the honour that I didn’t get while in Congress,” Mrs Patil said while speaking after joining the BJP.

Guardian minister of Sangli Chandrakant Patil played a major role in bringing her to the party fold. “It is very important moment as a person from Vasantdada Patil’s family is joining the BJP,” Chandrakant Patil said. Several other local Congress leaders like former mayor Kishor Saha, Kanchan Kamble, Prashant Patil, Shevanta Waghmare, Uttam Sakhalkar, former chief of standing committee Santosh Patil, former corporators Ajit Suryavanshi, Rohini Patil, Mrinal Patil, Karan Jamdar and president of district labour federation Sunil Jadhav too joined the BJP along with Mrs Patil on the occasion.MLAs Suresh Khade, Sudhir Gadgil, state president of Janasurajya Party Sumit Kadam, Sangli district BJP president Samrat Mahadik and City president Prakash Dhang were present at the occasion.

People are fed up with directionless leadership of Congress: FadnavisCM Fadnavis reminded of several of the people-centric decisions made by Vasantdada Patil while he was the Chief Minister and said that Jayashree Patil is carrying that legacy of connect with the people. He also said that though the Congress didn’t take note of her abilities, she won’t have such a disheartening experience in the BJP. The party’s strength shall grow considerably in the district because of her joining the party, he added.

“Even when the party was in opposition, the BJP never shun the ideology of national interest and social good. But, after having to sit in the opposition, the Congress has gone rudderless. Its leadership is directionless,” Fadnavis said without naming Rahul Gandhi.

Loyalists within the Congress are all frustrated because the leadership is constantly talking against the Indian army. This is leading to demoralization of local leadership of the party and that is the reason why Congress leaders across the state are all willing to join the BJP, Fadnavis said.