Suspended former Congress MLA Ashish Deshmukh is all set to return to the ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Nagpur on Sunday in the presence of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state party President Chandrashekhar Bawankule and others.
The development comes over three weeks after Deshmukh was slapped with a show-cause notice and expelled by the Congress on May 22 for publicly criticising top party leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Maharashtra party President Nana Patole.
Deshmukh – an ex-BJP MLA from Katol – is the son of veteran Congress leader and former state President Ranjit Deshmukh.
A few months back, Deshmukh had stirred up a huge row when he called upon Rahul Gandhi to apologise to the OBC community over his ‘Modi surname’ remarks that led to forfeiture of his Lok Sabha membership.
He shot of a letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in January seeking removal of Patole, blaming him for the party’s nose-diving fortunes in the state with a series of electoral debacles.
Later, he alleged that Patole was working in tandem with the ruling Shiv Sena Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and taking ‘One Khokha’ (slang for Rs 1-crore) monthly from him.
The party had promptly rubbished these utterances and allegations, with senior leaders hitting back saying Deshmukh had “lost his mental balance”.
Deshmukh had quit the BJP in 2019 and contested against Fadnavis from Nagpur SouthWest constituency, but lost.
It remains to be seen which constituency he will be allotted in his second innings with the BJP for contesting the 2024 assembly elections.
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