In a scathing attack on former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, senior-most Maharashtra BJP leader Eknath Khadse said that his party could have got 20 to 25 more seats had seniors not been sidelined.
Khadse, however, did not name Fadnavis, but, it was amply clear whom he was referring to.
Khadse, who was once No.2 in the government - but had to resign on corruption charges - also targetted Fadnavis for hobnobbing by NCP founder Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar and landing in a mess on government formation and giving him clean chit in the irrigation scam.
Khadse and senior leaders and ministers Vinod Tawde, Prakash Mehta and Chandrashekar Banwankule were denied tickets.
"Its okay that Khadse, Tawde, Mehta and Bawankule were not given tickets....you should have taken us along, the BJP would have got around 20 to 25 more seats," said Khadse, popularly known as Nathabhau.
Khadse's daughter was given the ticket from Muktainagar but she lost the election to Independent Chandrakant Patil, who was backed by Congress-NCP alliance.
Khadse has been in leadership position since the time the duo of Pramod Mahajan-Gopinath Munde called the shots, but, now he is sidelined.
On irrigation scam, Khadse said: “We had given bullock cartloads of proofs (against Ajit Pawar).... all those proofs have already been sold at old paper mart. Then the old papers fetched good price”
Khadse argued that the party never goes wrong, but when "some leaders in the party entrusted with decision making powers" take wrong decisions the party has to face its damages.
He said in 2014 the BJP took the decision to snap its alliance with the Shiv Sena, it was the party decision. "But, I was entrusted the responsibility of announcing it. The BJP and Shiv Sena contested the elections separately, but later on came together. For five years the government functioned well."
He further argued that again in 2019 the two parties contested the elections as an alliance.
"People gave majority mandate of 161 seats to both the parties, but only on the issue of who should have been the Chief Minister, the two parties parted ways," he said.
"We did penance for it in the last 35 to 40 years. But, people like us were sidelined," the outspoken leader said.
