BJP Maharashtra leader Nana Patole announced on Friday that he had resigned from the Lok Sabha and quit the party too.

Patole, elected from Bhandara-Gondiya, said he had submitted his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's office and also to the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership.

The development is seen as a blow to the BJP, coming a day ahead of the first round of the Gujarat Assembly polls on Saturday.

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