Mumbai: Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nana Patole’s resignation from the BJP in December 2017 has thrown up challenges for four major parties in Maharashtra. Patole, a former Congress member of legislative assembly in Maharashtra, had joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 general elections. He contested against senior NCP leader and then sitting MP Praful Patel from Bhandara-Gondia constituency and won by nearly 150,000 votes. After he quit the BJP, Patole said he would contest the Lok Sabha bypoll only if either Praful Patel or Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis were in the fray. Congress party functionaries say the party may have accommodated Patole but fielding him in the by-poll was “a call the top leadership has to take”.

Source: Mint January 14, 2018 19:30 UTC