India, Dec. 18 -- Congress legislator Pradnya Satav on Thursday resigned from the Maharashtra legislative council and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party's Nariman Point office in Mumbai.

Satav, 49, was first elected to the legislative council on a Congress ticket after the death of her husband, Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Satav, in 2021. She was re-elected to the legislative council in 2024, and her term was to end in July 2030.

Satav hails from the Other Backward Classes in the Marathwada region's Hingoli district.

Her exit from the Congress amid the local body elections is a setback to the Congress. Also, her husband Rajeev had been close to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and was considered part of his inner circle.

Before...