Kolhapur: Former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has claimed that he was approached by a top national leader of the BJP requesting him to join the party.Speaking to TOI over the phone, the former Maharashtra chief minister said that he had received a call from the BJP leader around 8-10 days ago. He, however, refused to disclose the name of the leader. He said he flatly rejected the offer to join the BJP.Shinde also made this disclosure on Monday while addressing Congress workers at the party office. He told the workers that the BJP had made an offer to him and his daughter, MLA Praniti Shinde, to join the party. “I categorically refused the offer as the Congress runs in my blood. I will stay with the Congress till my last breath,” he had said.Shinde’s statement assumes significance in the backdrop of several Congress leaders and members of families traditionally aligned to the party switching over to the BJP. This includes members from politically influential families like the Vikhe-Patils of Ahmednagar, Mohite-Patils of Solapur and Naik-Nimbalkars and Bhosales of Satara.However, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari ridiculed Shinde’s claim, saying, “Shinde has the habit to make such statements. He had promised free power supply to the farmers and later said nobody should believe promises made before the elections. He is making this statement before the elections and people will not believe him.”Shinde is again contesting for the Solapur Lok Sabha seat, which he had lost against Sharad Bansode of the BJP by a margin of around 1.5 lakh in the 2014 elections. The BJP has this time fielded Jay Siddheshwar Shivacharya, a spiritual leader, who has a following in the Lingayat community.

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