Maharashtra: In another blow to Congress, state working president Basavaraj Patil joins BJP ahead of LS polls

Maharashtra: In yet another blow to Congress in Maharashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, state party leader and working president Basavaraj Patil Murmukar quit the grand old party and joined the BJP on Tuesday. This comes days after former chief minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan joined the saffron party in a major political switch in the state.

Patil joined the BJP in presence of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other party leaders.

Who is Basavaraj Patil?

A resident of Murum in Umarga taluka of the Dharashiv district, Patil was elected for the first time in the 1999 Assembly elections. He had then become a minister in the Maharashtra cabinet.

He was the Rural Development Minister of Maharashtra from 1999 to 2004. He had lost in the 2004 elections.

Congress nominated him from the Ausa constituency in the 2009 polls.

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