BJP stalwart Eknath Khadse likely to join NCP

Veteran BJP leader and former minister Eknath Khadse is likely to join NCP.

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 a ticket.

Over the past two weeks, Khadse, a grassroots politician, efficient administrator, and a powerful orator, has been in touch with NCP leadership and is expected to join the Sharad Pawar-led party soon. However, neither the NCP nor Khadse or his aides gave any line of confirmation.

Khadse (68), who hails from Muktainagar in Jalgaon district of North Maharashtra, is one of the tallest leaders of the BJP who helped the party reach out to people and grow. Groomed by late Pramod Mahajan and then by Gopinath Munde, he has traveled from being a Sarpanch of Kothali village to being the No. 2 in the government.

In fact, he was a CM-aspirant, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then BJP President Amit Shah chose Fadnavis instead, who had been groomed in legislative affairs by Khadse himself. Since 1989, he had represented Muktainagar constituency from Jalgaon district in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

From 1995-99, he served under two CMs – Dr. Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane and held portfolios like Higher and Technical Education, Finance and Planning, Irrigation, and Command Area Development. From 2009-2014, he was Leader of Opposition and 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. His daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse is an MP from Jalgaon. In 2019, when he was denied a ticket, the party high command offered the Muktainagar seat to his daughter Rohini Khadse-Khevalkar, however, she lost the polls. The Khadse-camp had accused Fadnavis and his team of engineering of the defeat.