Congress may touch 100 In Lok Sabha with independent candidate's support

Sangli had been the centre of drama ever since the Lok Sabha elections were announced.

With Independent candidate Vishal Patil extending support to the Congress, the party’s strength in Lok Sabha reached 100.

The Congress won 99 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. "With Vishal Patil's support, the Congress's strength will go up to 100 in Lok Sabha," Congress MLA Vishwajit Kadam, who had fought for him within the party, told NDTV.

Patil, who won as an independent candidate from Sangli in Maharashtra, met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday and extended unconditional support to the party in a formal letter.

The grandson of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil, Vishal Patil defeated BJP's Sanjaykaka Patil.

He had contested as an independent after the Sangli parliamentary seat was assigned to the Shiv Sena-UBT in the seat-sharing arrangement among the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on X, said, "Welcoming the support of the elected MP from Sangli, Shri Vishal Patil (@patilvishalvp) to the Congress party.”

All India Congress Committee general secretary KC Venugopal said that the Congress had always had deep roots in Sangli and with this sentiment, Patil had extended unconditional support to the party. “This is a truly fitting move which takes the legacy of Congress stalwart Vasantdada Patil ji forward,” Venugopal said in a post on X.

Sangli had been the centre of drama ever since the Lok Sabha elections were announced. The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), both key members of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, were involved in a seat-sharing dispute.

According to The Hindu, Pappu Yadav, who won the Purnea Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate, is expected to extend his support to the Congress. Before the election, he had merged his own political outfit with the expectation that he would contest the Purnea seat on a Congress ticket. However, the seat went to the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the seat-sharing arrangements negotiated by the Opposition alliance.

Meanwhile, the Congress has convened a meeting of its extended Working Committee on June 8 and is also hosting a dinner for its newly elected MPs later in the evening.