Mumbai: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Eknath Khadse, a tall leader from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, is set to return to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a gap of nearly four years.
According to a close aide of Khadse, who is currently an MLC from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar) faction, the leader is eyeing a more national role for himself in the BJP.
Khadse had exited the BJP to join the then undivided NCP in October 2020 after being relegated to the sidelines by the state leadership for almost five years. When the former BJP state minister quit, he squarely blamed Devendra Fadnavis, now deputy CM, for his decision alleging Fadnavis had made him “suffer mental torture.”
Khadse on Saturday reportedly told some Marathi television channels that he will soon be joining the BJP and that he is in talks with the party’s senior leadership. He, however, did not specify when his induction is likely to take place.
Khadse did not respond to ThePrint’s calls.
His above-mentioned close aide told ThePrint that Khadse has held talks with the party’s senior leadership in Delhi and that they are keen on having Khadse on board as it will “considerably strengthen” the BJP’s prospects in northern Maharashtra, of which Jalgaon is a part.
Khadse’s daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse is the BJP candidate from Raver in Jalgaon district.
“Nathabhau (as Khadse is popularly known in Maharashtra) belongs to a community that has a significant presence not only in Maharashtra, but also in states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and so on. When the BJP let go of Nathabhau, the community was also disillusioned with the party. His return will ensure they vote for the BJP with a thumping majority,” the source said.
Khadse belongs to the Leva Patil community, an Other Backward Classes (OBC) sub caste. The community used to rally earlier behind the Congress, but shifted to the BJP in large numbers with Khadse’s rise.
Also Read: Why Maharashtra’s non-Marathi outfits are objecting to a tie-up between BJP & Raj Thackeray’s MNS
‘National role’
Khadse quit the BJP after falling out with its state leadership, particularly Fadnavis. When the BJP won the 2014 Maharashtra election, Khadse was among the CM hopefuls but lost out to Fadnavis. Party sources say, he was reluctant to work under Fadnavis but was placated by assigning important portfolios and making him the de facto second-in-command.
He, however, was asked to resign from the cabinet in 2016 over a series of graft charges.
First, Khadse faced the heat when the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested one of his aides for allegedly demanding Rs 30 crore as bribe in a land deal.
Soon afterwards, an ethical hacker claimed that Khadse was in touch with fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim.
The final nail in the coffin was a land purchase by Khadse’s wife and son-in-law in Pune’s Bhosari industrial area, for which the former revenue minister faced allegations of conflict of interest. He was eventually given a clean chit, but was kept out of the state cabinet.
After Khadse’s resignation as minister, the BJP state leadership pushed Girish Mahajan, the water resources minister in the Fadnavis cabinet, as a significant leader from north Maharashtra. The growing prominence of Mahajan was a deliberate strategy to counter Khadse’s influence in the region and his aspirations.
With leaders such as Fadnavis and Mahajan still dominating the BJP’s political affairs in Maharashtra, Khadse, a six-time former MLA from Jalgaon’s Muktainagar constituency, is looking at a more national role for himself this time.
“He is trying to get responsibilities in the party’s affairs at a national level. The leadership is keen to get him on board. Moreover, with the split in the NCP and Sharad Pawar only growing older, the party doesn’t have much of a future,” the source close to Khadse said.
The NCP split in July last year when Ajit Pawar walked out with a majority of MLAs to join the ruling combine of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the BJP.
According to the source, the Jalgaon leader is pushing to get some party responsibility at the national level.
Impact in northern Maharashtra
Khadse entered active politics as a BJP worker in the 1980s and helped the party establish a base in northern Maharashtra over the years. He was a strong OBC face in the BJP, especially after Maharashtra heavyweight and former Union minister Gopinath Munde’s death in 2014.
He gradually strengthened the BJP’s hold over Jalgaon — from first helping the party gain strength in the zilla parishad, then the district cooperative bank and the municipal corporation.
Khadse is said to have practically sowed the seeds for the BJP’s growth in the northern region of Maharashtra, comprising the districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Dhule and Nandurbar.
The BJP, however, has been facing trouble in Jalgaon. Sitting MP Unmesh Patil left the party to join the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) after he was replaced by MLC Smita Wagh in the seat. A section of the BJP cadre was also upset with Raksha Khadse’s candidature. Getting Eknath Khadse back on its side will quell some of these fissures, the party feels.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Pawar bahu, social worker & ‘unwilling’ politician — who is NCP’s Baramati pick Sunetra Pawar