GANDHINAGAR: Mafatlal Patel , the estranged husband of Anandiben Patel , a senior minister who is a hot favourite to succeed Narendra Modi if he were to become Prime Minister, is set to join the Aam Aadmi Party shortly.

He met senior AAP functionaries and expressed his willingness to join the party along with some academicians and intellectuals “in order to fight Modi’s corruption”. He told TOI AAP was the right platform to fight against Modi. A former college principal, Patel indicated that he would join AAP early next week. He said he was here not to contest elections but to fight for clean politics. He said he was in talks with a large group of friends who had been impresssed with AAP's emergence.

Patel (77), a Gandhian popularly known as Mafatbhai, had married Anandiben some 50 years ago but they have been living separately for about 20 years now. The differences started in 1985 when his wife, then a school principal, was roped into BJP by Modi. He wrote several letters to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani to complain against Modi’s growing influence over his wife. He even campaigned against Anandiben in previous assembly elections.

Two years back, he tried to embarass the chief minister by writing a sarcastic letter, requesting him to prevail upon Anandiben to lend him $ 1000 to buy a ticket to visit the US. Modi never responded though and Mafatlal's fresh political moves would only be a source of more embarassment for the chief minister and his likely successor.