Vishal Patil is a former Congress leader
Independent Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra Vishal Patil on Thursday met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here and extended support to the party.
Mr Patil, the grandson of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil, won the Lok Sabha election from the Sangli seat.
A former Congress leader, Mr Patil had contested the elections as an Independent after the Sangli parliamentary seat was allotted to the Shiv Sena-UBT in the seat-sharing arrangement among the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.
In a post on X, Mr Kharge said, "Welcoming the support of the elected MP from Sangli, Shri Vishal Patil (@patilvishalvp) to the Congress party." Patil also met former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
In the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won 99 seats, the highest in the opposition INDIA bloc. The opposition coalition emerged victorious on 233 seats.
"It did not become possible to contest on a Congress ticket, but people have voted for me taking into consideration the ideology of Congress. I can't forget this. Hence after getting elected, I extended my support to Congress. Today, I have sent a letter of support to Mallikarjun Kharge. I met Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi to take their blessings. We will work together," Mr Patil told reporters here.
AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said the Congress always had deep roots in Sangli and with this sentiment Patil has extended unconditional support to the party.
"This is a truly fitting move which takes the legacy of Congress stalwart Vasantdada Patil ji forward," Mr Venugopal said.
Mr Patil is the son of Prakashbapu Patil, a five-term Congress Lok Sabha MP from Sangli. Prakashbapu died in 2005 and his son Pratik Patil won the Sangli seat in a bypoll.
Pratik was a union minister in the UPA government and announced retirement from politics recently following which Vishal stepped in.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)