Suryakanta Patil returns from BJP to Sharad Pawar's NCP after 10 years

NEW DELHI: Ex-Union minister Suryakanta Patil, who quit BJP a few days ago, joined the Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) on Tuesday.
Suryakanta Patil joined Sharad Pawar's party 11 years after partying ways to join the BJP in 2014.
Patil resigned from the primary membership of the BJP on Saturday.
Pawar and Patil extolled her leadership qualities and said that her return would boost the party’s prospects in Nanded, Hingoli, Parbhani, Beed and other districts.
In her resignation letter, she said that she tried to seek personal appointment with state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, but could not get an appointment.
"I have learned a lot in the last 10 years, I am thankful to the party," Suryakanta Patil said after quitting the BJP.
The resignation of Patil, who started her political career with Jan Sangh in 1970, came as a rude shock for the party.
A couple of years later, she switched to Congress and remained a corporator eight years.
In 1980, Patil first got elected as MLA from Hadgaon assembly constituency, followed by Congress nominating her to Rajya Sabha in 1986. In 1991, 1998 and 2004, she was elected as Lok Sabha MP.
She switched over to NCP in 2009 and contested LS elections and lost. In 2014, she joined BJP and had been associated with the party for a decade.
Patil represented the Hingoli-Nanded constituency four times as MP and once as MLA. She was also the minister of state for rural development and parliamentary affairs during the UPA government.
During the seat-sharing arrangement ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Hingoli seat was left to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
BJP had given her the responsibility of poll chief of the Hadgaon Himayatnagar assembly constituency.
The Shiv Sena had lost the Hingoli seat to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction.