Atul Ashok Howale 
New Delhi: Vishal Patil, elected MP as an independent candidate from the Sangli Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, has extended his “unconditional” support to the Congress party on Thursday. For all intents and purposed, the Congress now has 100 MPs in the new parliament.
After the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, Congress workers were upset that the Sangli seat, a traditional Congress stronghold, went to the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). But Patil contested as an independent and won the election.
Patil defeated the candidates of both the Mahavikas Aghadi and Mahayuti; he got 1,00,053 votes more than two-time BJP MP Sanjay Patil.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge expressed gratitude to Patil after receiving his letter of support for the Congress party. Kharge shared his appreciation on X, stating that Patil’s decision is a fitting tribute to inspiring stalwarts like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Babasaheb Dr Ambedkar, who dedicated their lives to the fight for social justice, equality and freedom.
Who is Vishal Patil?
The Patil family has close ties with the Congress and the Gandhi family. Vishal the grandson of the late Vasantdada Patil, former chief minister of Maharashtra. Vishal’s late father, Prakash Bapu Patil, has also been an MP, while his brother, Pratik Patil, served as a Congress minister of state during the UPA government.
The Sangli Lok Sabha constituency has always been a stronghold of the Congress, but during the Modi wave of 2014, Vishal’s brother Pratik had to face defeat as the Congress candidate. In 2019, Vishal contested the elections from farmer leader Raju Shetty’s Swabhimani Shetkari Party, but due to a split in votes, BJP candidate Sanjay Patil won for the second time.
Dalit and Muslim votes were the deciding factor.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, there was a split in the Sangli Lok Sabha constituency, leading to Vishal’s defeat as the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate managed to secure over 2.5 lakh votes.
However, in this year’s election, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi supported Vishal without fielding its own candidate. As a result, the Dalit and Muslim votes rallied behind Vishal.
On the other hand, rallies by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Home Minister Amit Shah were held for Mahayuti candidate Sanjay Patil. In these meetings, more emphasis was placed on Hindutva and Hindu-Muslim issues rather than development work. Consequently, voters in Sangli rejected the Hindutva card and elected Vishal.