'Thankful ... ' : What ex-Union minister Suryakanta Patil said after resigning from BJP

NEW DELHI: Stung by the poor Maharashtra Lok Sabha election results, BJP faced another blow as ex-Union minister Suryakanta Patil resigned from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.
In her resignation letter, she said that she tried to seek personal appointment with state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, but could not get an appointment.
"I have learned a lot in the last 10 years, I am thankful to the party," Suryakanta Patil said after quitting the BJP.
The resignation of Suryakanta Patil, who started her political career with Jan Sangh in 1970, came as a rude shock for the party.
A couple of years later, she switched to Congress and remained a corporator eight years.
In 1980, Patil first got elected as MLA from Hadgaon assembly constituency, followed by Congress nominating her to Rajya Sabha in 1986. In 1991, 1998 and 2004, she was elected as Lok Sabha MP.
She switched over to NCP in 2009 and contested LS elections and lost. In 2014, she joined BJP and had been associated with the party for a decade.
Patil represented the Hingoli-Nanded constituency four times as MP and once as MLA. She was also the minister of state for rural development and parliamentary affairs during the UPA government.
During the seat-sharing arrangement ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Hingoli seat was left to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
BJP had given her the responsibility of poll chief of the Hadgaon Himayatnagar assembly constituency.
The Shiv Sena had lost the Hingoli seat to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction.