LS polls: prominent personalities among early voters

Ahmednagar: Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, facing heat for campaigning — despite being a Congressman — for his son who is a BJP candidate, will reveal his plans on April 21, sources said Wednesday.

Vikhe Patil is upset with the criticism directed at him but for the moment he is keeping quiet and supervising his son Sujay’s campaign in Ahmednagar, sources close to him said.

Sujay Vikhe Patil is pitted against NCP’s Sangram Jagtap in Ahmednagar.

The sources said the Vikhe Patil senior will hold a press conference and talk about his “political present and future” on April 21, two days before Ahmednagar goes to the polls, amid indications that he would part ways with the Congress.

As per the sources, Vikhe Patil was upset with the Congress for failing to persuade the ally NCP to cede Ahmednagar seat for Sujay.

The NCP did not have a strong candidate of its own and it had faced defeat in the constituency in the last three elections, the sources added.

The senior Congressman was also angry that only he was singled out for criticism over his son joining the BJP while there were several other rebellions in the state Congress, they said.

Asked about his father, a Congress leader, campaigning for him, Sujay Vikhe Patil said, “He is helping me as a father. As a family we stand together.”