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PM Modi and govt ignored me so I quit, says Maharashtra BJP MP

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Maharashtra BJP MP Nanabhau Patole alleges that PM ignored his suggestion to solve farmers’ problems.

New Delhi: Hours after he tendered his resignation Friday, Maharashtra BJP MP Nanabhau Patole told ThePrint that he was being sidelined in the party and felt neglected.

He also alleged that the Prime Minister had ignored his suggestions to improve the condition of farmers. The incident is being seen as the first instance of revolt against Narendra Modi’s leadership.

“The PM did not take my advice seriously and the state government too sidelined me. I am being ignored since I speak about issues related to farmers and their plight,” Patole, MP from the Bhandara Gondia constituency, told ThePrint.

“I had been thinking about resigning for more than a year and finally made up my mind,” he added.

Although Patole sent his resignation to the Loksabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, it has not been accepted yet. The incident signals a crack in the BJP fold that could widen in the coming years.

It is usually the Congress that draws flak for its high attrition rate as many senior leaders quit the party alleging “neglect” from the party high command.

Patole, an OBC leader, had come to the BJP fold after quitting Congress in 2009.

Patole alleged that the both the PM and BJP top brass ignored issues raised by him such as poor implementation of reservation, impacts of demonetisation on jobs and businesses, GST, PM Fasal Bima Yojana and rising graph of farmers’ suicides.

However, sources close to Patole claimed he was eyeing a berth in the Modi cabinet during the recent reshuffle, which did not materialise.

The sources said that he had an altercation with the PM during a meeting with state MPs a year and a half ago, which could have made him a fall guy.

“He suggested there should be a separate ministry for OBCs and attention should be paid to how foreign countries are helping their farmers,” said one of the sources.
“The PM then responded by saying that the focus of his government is to reduce the number of ministries, not to increase them. The details of this conversation were leaked to media and Patole felt hurt,” the source added.

The sources said Patole harboured a doubt that he would not be repeated in the next elections. There was apprehension about NCP leader and former Union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel’s growing proximity to the BJP brass. Patel was his political rival against him he fought election and won.

Patole has been no stranger to rebellion. The 54-year-old politician who started his career as a Bhandara Zilla Parishad member first contested the assembly election as a Congress rebel in 1995. Patole lost to the BJP.

In 1999, Patole, who has positioned himself as an OBC leader, was elected as a legislator on a Congress ticket from the Lakhandur seat in Bhandara, which he held on to in 2004 as well. The firebrand leader started brewing trouble for the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra in 2008 when he lashed out at the government in the winter session of the state legislature over farmers’ suicides in Vidarbha and the government’s neglect in the region’s overall development.

The differences between Patole and his party resulted in him walking out of the Congress and contesting the Lok Sabha election as an independent against NCP’s Praful Patel from the Bhandara-Gondia constituency with the Congress and NCP fighting the election in an alliance.

In 2014, he crushed Praful Patel in a giant victory to clinch the Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha constituency. In 2016, he stirred a major controversy by attempting to table a private members’ bill in the Parliament on the creation of a separate Vidarbha state.

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