Harshvardhan Patil joins NCP (SP) after quitting BJP, eyes Indapur assembly seat

Former Maharashtra minister Harshvardhan Patil has officially joined the opposition Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), days after his resignation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Patil was inducted into the NCP (SP) in a ceremony held on Monday, in the presence of party chief Sharad Pawar. Speaking about his decision, Patil, who has previously served as a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Indapur in Pune district, emphasized that his supporters want him to contest the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections from the same constituency. "In a democracy, people are more important than political parties," Patil remarked. Patil, who currently holds the position of president of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories, quit the BJP last week. Indapur, the constituency Patil has his sights on, falls within the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency.

On October 3, Patil met with NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar in Mumbai. Following the meeting, Patil shared that Pawar encouraged him to join the party and assured him of support in the upcoming elections. "He said he would get me elected," Patil claimed. Speculation regarding Patil’s move had been mounting for some time, especially after NCP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar suggested that sitting MLAs from certain seats would be given the chance to contest again. Patil, who has been elected MLA from Indapur four times, expressed his intention to reclaim the seat in the upcoming elections. However, the seat is currently held by Dattatray Bharne of the BJP's alliance partner, NCP, who is expected to be fielded again by his party.

Harshvardhan Patil has a long political history, having first won the Indapur seat as an independent candidate in the 1995 state assembly elections. During the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government between 1995 and 1999, he served as the minister of state for agriculture and marketing. He later joined the Congress party in 2009 and held the position of minister for cooperation and parliamentary affairs during the Congress-NCP alliance government from 1999 to 2014. Following his decision to quit the BJP, senior state BJP minister Chandrakant Patil commented that Harshvardhan Patil would likely regret his move. He suggested that those leaving the party were doing so because they realized they would not be fielded again for the upcoming elections.