Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Eknath Khadse on Sunday officially confirmed that he would be returning to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) within the next fortnight.
However, Mr. Khadse’s daughter, Rohini Khadse, said she would remain with the NCP (SP). Ms. Rohini was the head of the women’s wing of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.
Once a stalwart BJP leader who was close to the late Gopinath Munde, Mr. Khadse was in the reckoning for the post of Chief Minister in Maharashtra following the BJP’s win in the 2014 Assembly election. However, he was edged out in favour of his intra-party rival Devendra Fadnavis, who served as Chief Minister (2014-19) and then took on the role of Deputy Chief Minister.
Over the past few days, speculations were rife that Mr. Khadse would return to his original party.
“I recently met party president J.P. Nadda and Union Minister Amit Shah and held discussions with them regarding my entry into the party. I have expressed a wish that I would like to join the BJP within the next 15 days,” Mr. Khadse told reporters in his stronghold Muktainagar in Jalgaon district.
He denied that he had been pursuing the BJP to take him back into its fold. “For the last six months, I have been in conversation with some senior leaders. They urged me to return to the party,” he said.
Denying reports that he would rejoin the BJP during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha election rally in the State’s Chandrapur district on April 8, he stating that his entry into the BJP would take place in Delhi.
Mr. Khadse was the Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly prior to the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election. After the BJP came to power in the State that year, Mr. Khadse held several important portfolios, including the Revenue portfolio.
However, his name had figured prominently in a case involving the purchase of a prime plot of land in Pune’s Bhosari area at throwaway prices. Mr. Khadse was alleged to have acquired the plot of land by illicit means by abusing his position as Revenue Minister in the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government (2014-19).
The incident triggered Mr. Khadse’s fall from grace within the BJP, prompting his resignation from the Fadnavis-led cabinet in 2016.
After being denied a ticket in the 2019 Assembly polls and following the defeat of his daughter, Mr. Khadse became vocal about his disenchantment with the BJP, especially accusing Mr. Fadnavis of plotting his downfall.
He finally joined the (undivided) NCP in 2020, remaining by Mr. Sharad Pawar’s side following the split triggered by Ajit Pawar’s rebellion in July last year.
Meanwhile, downplaying his differences with Mr. Fadnavis, Mr. Khadse said the bitterness in their relationship had mellowed over the years.
Commenting on Mr. Khadse’s return, Maharashtra State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said Mr. Fadnavis had never opposed Mr. Khadse.
“Devendra Fadnavis never opposed Eknath Khadse. In fact, he treated him with utmost respect when he was with the BJP and I am a witness to it. Mr. Fadnavis always extended his full cooperation to Mr. Khadse when he was the Cabinet Minister under him,” he said, adding that Mr. Fadnavis’s personal relations with Mr. Khadse had remained intact even after the latter’s exit from the BJP.
