Shocker To BJP: Maharashtra MP Quits 

Mumbai: A day ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, the BJP received a shocker when prominent MP Nana Patole resigned from the party and also to the Lok Sabha membership on Friday.

Patole, elected from Bhandara-Gondiya, said he had submitted his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and also the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership. Patole, who has been highly critical of the BJP leadership in recent months, said he quit since he was "deeply anguished and felt let down by the party". "The objectives with which I had joined the (BJP) party have been belied, but now (post-quitting) I am free of the turmoil in my mind," Patole told the media shortly after submitting his resignation letter to the Lok Sabha Secretariat. He said he had not made up his mind on which party to join but would consider throwing his lot with "some like-minded" political outfit.

IANS