Former MLA Ashish Deshmukh to return to BJP on Sunday

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 15 (ANI): Former MLA Ashish Deshmukh is all set to rejoin the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), days after he was expelled by the Maharashtra Congress for 6 years for “anti-party comments”.

Speaking to ANI on Thursday, Deshmukh said he would formally return to the BJP on June 18, Sunday.

He will be re-inducted into the saffron camp in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fandanvis, top leaders from the BJP’s state unit and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, among others, in Nagpur.

He left the BJP after stepping down as an MLA in 2018.

In his resignation letter, he accused the BJP governments at the Centre and the state of failing to solve people’s problems.

A BJP MLA from 2014 to 2018, he switched over to the Congress after ditching the saffron party. In the 2019 Assembly elections, he was fielded against then-CM Devendra Fadanavis. However, he lost to the present deputy CM.

Earlier, Deshmukh had said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi must apologise for his remark ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, using the surname ‘Modi’.

Maharashtra Congress had issued him a show cause notice on March 5 in light of his remark.

Rahul was eventually convicted and sentenced by a Surat court for criminal defamation and was stripped off his status as a member of the Lok Sabha.

The Son of former state Congress president Ranjeet Deshmukh, Ashish Deshmukh resigned from the post of Congress state general secretary in May 2022 after the party declared its candidates for the Rajya Sabha.

He had alleged that the Congress was imposing outsiders on Maharashtra for the Rajya Sabha elections. Uttar Pradesh-based Poet-turned-politician Imran Pratapgarhi was made an Upper House candidate from Maharashtra.

Ashish Deshmukh was formerly elected MLA from the Katol constituency of Maharashtra.

Earlier, on May 20, Deshmukh called on Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis, sparking rumours of his return to the saffron camp.