The daughter-in-law of former Union Minister and Congress veteran Shivraj Patil — Archana Patil Charukar — joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
After joining the saffron party, Archana said “I have joined the BJP to work in the political sphere. I was greatly influenced by the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam brought by PM Modi. It gives equal opportunity to women.”
She further said that she had worked at the “grassroots” level in Latur and she will do so “with the BJP” as well. “I was never officially in the Congress,” she said, adding that the saffron camp’s ideology has a “great influence” on her.
Earlier on Friday, Archana met Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at his official residence ‘Sagar’ in south Mumbai.
She said that she had planned to join the BJP along with former state minister Baswaraj Murumkar — Shivraj Patil’s close aide — on Monday but had to postpone due to her daughter’s wedding.
Dr Archana Patil Charukar is the chairperson of Lifecare Hospital and Research Centre in Udgir and her husband — Shailesh Patil Chandurkar — is state secretary of the Congress.
Her father-in-law, Shivraj Patil, was Union home minister between 2004 and 2008 in the UPA government.
