Patole delays plan to join Congress

Nagpur:

Nana Patole

, who became the first BJP MP to resign from Lok Sabha and the party is certain to return to the Congress but is bidding for an ‘auspicious’ date to formally join the Congress. He has also deferred his plan for ‘Paschatap Yatra’ that he was to undertake this month to ‘repent’ his 8-year stay in the BJP.

Patole resigned from the BJP in the middle of December and even went in a hurry to campaign for the Congress in Gujarat elections sharing dais with Rahul Gandhi. On Thursday, he told TOI, “Looking to the sensitive situation in the state in the aftermath of Bhima-Koregaon incidents, I have decided to join the Congress only after the situation returns to normalcy.”

Condoling the death of two youths who died in the Dalit-Maratha clashes at the very start of the new year, Patole once again blamed it all on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for failure to contain the violence and clashes during protests and bandh that hit common public in the state. Patole met Rahul on Wednesday along with state Congress leaders.

“I will reveal my further political course in next few days after the communal situation in state calms down. Meanwhile on Jan 11, I will hold a farmers rally at Dabhdi in Yavatmal district. It was at Dabhdi village that Narendra Modi had promised to implement Swaminathan formula of fixing minimum support price for crops factoring in 50% profit over input costs. I will remind Modi and BJP that time has come to fulfil promises on which they were elected by people,” said Patole.

On Jan 12, he was to embark on the pan-Vidarbha 1700-km ‘Paschatap Yatra’ but has shelved the plan for now. However he will be attending a rally at Sindkhed Raja in Buldhana on that day to mark birth anniversary of Jijau (Shivaji Maharaj’s mother).

Asked if he would contest the by-election from Buldhana-Gondia, the seat he has just vacated, Patole said he would enter the fray if only against some strong candidate like Praful Patel. “Or may be if Fadnavis contests from the seat as there is talk of the BJP planning to shift him to Delhi politics.” Otherwise he has no plans to contest for the remaining short term of a year or so.