File photo of Maharashtra BJP leader Eknath Khadse.
Khadse has been in a bad mood since he was forced to resign as minister in the then BJP government in 2016 over corruption allegations.
- News18.com
- Last update: October 21, 2020 3:56 PM IST
- FOLLOW US:
Disgruntled BJP leader Eknath Khadse announced Wednesday that he will join the NCP. Speculation abounded in recent days that he might resign from the BJP and join the party led by Sharad Pawar.
“I have been expelled from the BJP. I am not unhappy with anyone else except Devendra Fadnavis … I have not been given any guarantees. I will enter the party alone. There is no MP or MP,” Khadse said. News18.
Maharashtra minister and PNC head of state Jayant Patil said Wednesday: “He (Khadse) will join the PNC at 2pm on Friday … this will strengthen the PNC.”
Khadse’s dissatisfaction with the BJP began after he was denied a ticket in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls. Ties worsened further after the debacle of his daughter Rohini Khadse in the Maharashtra Assembly polls of 2019. Khadse has been in a bad mood since he was forced to resign as minister in the then BJP government in 2016 over corruption allegations.
He was also reportedly unhappy with Fadnavis’ style of running the party and sidestepping potential ‘rivals’ in a Machiavellian way. A major split came to light within the Maharashtra BJP leadership after the Vidhan Sabha elections. The top leadership feared that leaders like Khadse, former ministers Pankaja Munde and Prakash Mehta, among others, would launch a rebellion within the party.
Following the results of the 2019 Assembly elections, the other backward caste (OBC) leaders accused Devendra Fadnavis, the former chief minister of Maharashtra, of engineering their defeats and denying them entry. In particular, Khadse has also claimed that certain leaders of the BJP state unit were behind the defeats of Munde and his daughter.
He claimed that it was a conspiracy to end his political career.
.
