Setback to BJP in Solapur as Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil quits party; likely to join NCP (SP)

Pune: In a setback to the BJP in Maharashtra's Solapur ahead of the general elections, Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil has resigned from the party and is likely to join the Nationalist Congress Party (SP).

Mohite Patil, who was the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Solapur district, tendered his resignation in a letter dated April 10 to party's state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule citing personal reasons.

A day earlier, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) party chief Sharad Pawar had announced that Mohite Patil will join his party in the presence of its state unit president Jayant Patil.

'Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil will join our party in the next two days in the presence of party state president Jayant Patil,' Pawar told reporters on Thursday.

Speculation is rife that the NCP (SP) will field Mohite Patil from Madha Lok Sabha constituency in Solapur against BJP's sitting MP Ranjit Naik-Nimbalkar.