Updated: October 21, 2020 10:24:12 pm
Eknath Khadse, the most important leader of the Maharashtra BJP, severed ties with the party after failing to regain his political importance within the organization. (Express Photo by Prashant Nadkar / Archive)
The BJP, used to accepting defectors from Congress and the PNC when it was in power in Maharashtra until a year ago, suffered a coup on Tuesday (October 21) after Senior leader Eknath Khadse left the party to join the PNC.
Will this trigger a procession of disgruntled leaders leaving the BJP? And what impact will Khadse’s resignation have on the party?
Why did Eknath Khadse resign from the BJP?
The highest ranking leader of the Maharashtra BJP severed ties with the party after failing to regain his political prominence within the organization.
He had felt marginalized, with no role to play in the state party. The central leadership of the BJP also did not consider him for a role in the team of the new national president JP Nadda.
Did the Maharashtra BJP try to retain you in the party?
From both the state and central BJP leadership, the clear message for Khadse was not to try to pressure the party. In the state BJP, he was retained as a member of the central committee, the highest decision-making body, but only in a high-level and “guiding” role.
In the 2019 Assembly elections, Khadse was denied the BJP’s candidacy for his local constituency, Muktainagar, a seat he had consistently won since 1989. This was a severe blow to the main leader.
The BJP accommodated their daughter Rohini Khadse from Muktainagar, but lost the election by a narrow margin to Shiv Sena’s rebel, Chandrakant Nimba Patil, who fought as an independent.
What impact will Khadse’s resignation have on the BJP?
More than anything, the party has lost face. Khadse’s association with the BJP dates back to the time of his pre-1980 avatar, Jana Sangh. He has long been seen as a loyal and hardworking Karyakarta who made immense contributions in building the organization and achieved repeated victories in the Assembly elections.
📣 Express explained is now in Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@ieexplained) and stay updated with the latest
Khadse belongs to the OBC Leva Patil community. He has a large following in the community and could win sympathy if his message of being wronged by former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis strikes a chord. However, the BJP does not currently expect a large-scale exodus of workers in solidarity with Khadse.
BJP State President Chandrakant Patil said: “We never expected Khadse to take such an extreme step. We had promised to meet and resolve differences through discussions … He shouldn’t have left. “
The BJP believes that Khadse supporters are restricted to the Muktainagar constituency from where he was elected to the Maharashtra Assembly for six consecutive terms. However, in 2019, he was unable to get his daughter Rohini elected from his seat.
Khadse’s daughter-in-law, Raksha Khadse, a Lok Sabha MP for two terms from the Raver constituency in Jalgaon in northern Maharashtra, remains in the BJP, an indicator, party leaders say, of its limited influence in northern Maharashtra. Maharashtra. BJP Secretary General Shrikant Bharatiya said Khadse had done “more harm to himself than to the party.”
In 2016, Khadse was removed as cabinet minister following corruption charges in a Pune land deal, and the BJP endorsed then-Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan as his face of CBO in northern Maharashtra. The 2019 Assembly elections saw Mahajan exerting more voice in decision-making over northern Maharashtra: Khadse had no role in the selection of candidates or in the election campaign.
BJP leaders in Maharashtra say Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Interior Minister Amit Shah have no patience with the rebellion. Khadse had been publicly attacking Fadnavis since 2016 and gradually closed all options to himself. A Rajya Sabha seat or vice president position in the party’s central organization was out of the question, these BJP leaders said.
But why have Fadnavis and Khadse been at odds?
After Fadnavis became Chief Minister on October 31, 2014, Khadse was never able to reconcile with his subordinate in Maharashtra BJP, a higher caste Brahmin, in the position to which he himself had aspired. Khadse had an ambition to become the state’s first CM OBC.
Although Khadse was awarded the number two position in the cabinet with significant income and agriculture portfolios, he never missed an opportunity to attack Fadnavis in public forums and in the media.
In 2016, when corruption charges were brought against Khadse in the Pune land scam, the party asked him to resign. He was never reinstated in the government. Khadse believes that Fadnavis systematically conspired to marginalize him from both the government and the organization.
Shortly after his resignation, Khadse said: “I have no complaints about the BJP. My anger is against a person, Fadnavis, who destroyed my life and my political career. It has hurt a lot. Fadnavis got me into bogus cases. “
How does Khadse’s entry into the PNC help?
A section within the NCP wanted Khadse to first get his daughter-in-law Rohini to give up Lok Sabha if she wanted a plum role in the party. But Sharad Pawar did not allow such a condition to be placed.
The NCP, which has a weak organization in northern Maharashtra, will use Khadse to attack the BJP and especially Fadnavis in the region.
Some leaders in the ruling coalition believe that Khadse’s resignation could set the stage for the most disgruntled BJP leaders to view Congress and the NCP as viable options, especially the West Maharashtra sugar belt leaders who joined the BJP before the 2019 elections.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and keep up to date with the latest headlines
For the latest news explained, download the Indian Express app.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
.
