Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLC Ramrao Wadkute and former party MLA Bappu Pathare joined the BJP on Tuesday, ahead of the next week’s Maharashtra Assembly polls.
Wadkute, a prominent Dhangar (shepherd) community leader from Marathwada region, was appointed member of the Maharashtra
Legislative Council in June 2014 from the governor’s quota.
He submitted his resignation on Monday evening to Legislative Council Chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar who immediately accepted it. Pathare is a former MLA from Pune.
Both Wadkute and Pathare were inducted into the BJP in Mumbai on Tuesday in the presence of the party’s working president J P Nadda. Wadkute, a native of Parbhani district in Marathwada, was earlier chairman of the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Sheli-Mendhi Vikas Mahamandal (Goat and Sheep Rearing Development Corporation) before being appointed as the MLC.