JOIN USEknath Khadse quits BJP, to join NCP soon
In a big jolt to the BJP in Maharashtra, veteran leader and powerful orator Eknath Khadse on Wednesday quit the saffron party and is set to join Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
Khadse (68), a tall leader from Khandesh-North Maharashtra region, who is popularly known as Natha Bhau, will join NCP in Mumbai on Friday.
As Khadse, a veteran OBC leader, made an exit from the BJP, which he raised in Maharashtra along with stalwarts like late Pramod Mahajan and late Gopinath Munde, he lashed out at leader of Opposition and ex-Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, for his departure from the party.
“I have nothing against BJP. I have nothing against the party's central leadership…I am leaving the party that I am associated with over 40 years only because of Fadnavis,” an emotional Khadse told reporters in his hometown of Muktainagar in Jalgaon district.
State NCP President and Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil confirmed that Khadse would formally join NCP on Friday.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the development reflects on the BJP. “We welcome Khadse to the Maha Vikas Aghadi family,” he said.
State NCP President Chandrakant Patil said that he is sad to hear Khadse's exit from BJP. “We have tried to convince him not to leave but that did not happen,” he said.
Fadnavis, however, did not comment. “I haven't got anything officially….state BJP President would speak on it,” he said.
While announcing his resignation, Khadse accused Fadnavis of engineering false cases against him and completely sidelined him from mainstream politics. “Even a false case of molestation was mounted on me,” he said, adding: “He (Fadnavis) has destroyed my life…I have spent four-five years in mental tension…I had said that I am being forced out of the party…I told the central high-command but justice was not meted out…there was no option left but to resign.”
Patil said that the state has seen how injustice was meted out to Khadse.
Khadse has been sulking since June 2016 when he was No. 2 to the then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and had to resign in the wake of alleged charges of corruption.
In the 2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls, the BJP leadership had denied him ticket.
From 2009-2014, he was leader of Opposition and had led the charge against the then Congress-NCP Democratic Front government.
After the 2014 elections, he lost the bid for the post of CM – but instead settled for 10 portfolios - Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, Earthquake Rehabilitation, Minorities Development and Wakf, Agriculture and Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries and State Excise. However, he had to put down papers following charges of corruption.
“No party…Shiv Sena (then in government), NCP or Congress asked for my resignation…not even inquiry,” he said, adding that the allegations against him were false. “Even they lodged a case of molestation against me…they played low level politics against me,” he said.
Asked who will leave with him, he said: “I am alone….no MLA or MP with me.” He also said that his daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse, who is an MP, is free to take her own decision.