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'I Built BJP In Maharashtra': Eknath Khadse Quits To Join NCP, All Eyes On Pankaja Munde Now

Khadse’s resignation has exposed the Bahujan-vs-Brahmin tussle inside the BJP.
Eknath Khadse and Devendra Fadnavis in a file photo
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Eknath Khadse and Devendra Fadnavis in a file photo

NAGPUR, Maharashtra: In a major jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra, one of its senior-most leaders, Eknath Khadse, resigned from all party posts on Wednesday.

Jayant Patil, Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Maharashtra president and senior minister in the Uddhav Thackeray cabinet, announced in a press conference that Khadse would be joining the NCP on Friday in presence of party supremo Sharad Pawar.

BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye also addressed a press conference in Mumbai and confirmed that the state BJP president has received Khadse’s resignation letter.

“Efforts were being made to pacify him till today morning but since he has resigned now, we give him our best wishes for the future,” Upadhey said in the press conference.

68-year-old Khadse is a six-time MLA from the Muktainagar assembly segment in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra and had been a member of the BJP for over 40 years.

“I built the BJP in the state. What is the contribution of those who are leading it now? I gave my 40 years to the party. I am not unhappy with the central unit or the state unit. My problem is only with Devendra Fadnavis. I am leaving the BJP with a heavy heart and joining NCP on Friday,” Khadse told reporters in Jalgoan after announcing his resignation.

For the past year, a clamour has been growing inside the BJP against Fadnavis, who allegedly tightly controls the party despite not being the state president.

With Khadse’s resignation, all eyes will now be on the late Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pankaja, who had been a minister in Fadnavis cabinet. Pankaja lost from her Parli assembly seat in Beed district of the state in the 2019 election. Although she did not name any particular person for her defeat she blamed some party insiders for her defeat. In December last year, Pankaja and Khadse held a rally in Beed, where they openly attacked Fadnavis.

Pankaja has not publicly responded to Khadse’s resignation until now.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde in a file photo
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde in a file photo

Problems within Maharashtra BJP

Some BJP insiders blame Fadnavis for not properly managing relations with former ally Shiv Sena, which has led to the single-largest party in the Maharashtra assembly sitting in the opposition despite having 105 MLAs.

Khadse’s resignation has exposed the Bahujan-vs-Brahmin tussle inside the BJP and Sharad Pawar, who would often point out Fadnavis’s Brahmin identity, is likely to take advantage of this situation.

A year ago, Fadnavis had engineered a large number of defections from the NCP on the eve of the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections. At the time, Pawar had put up a brave face and personally led the party’s campaign, ensuring that both NCP and Congress won a respectable number of seats.

Fadnavis has not commented yet on Khadse’s resignation.

However, Sudhir Manguntiwar, a senior BJP leader and former finance minister in Fadnavis’s cabinet, told a news channel that Khadse’s resignation is not good news for the BJP and that the party needs to introspect now.

Behind Fadnavis’s growth

Khadse was the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra assembly from 2009 to 2014 when Fadnavis was an MLA. It was Khadse who groomed and promoted Fadnavis.

HuffPost India has reported in its long profile of Fadnavis last year that Khadse brought the younger leader, who had a good grasp over urban issues, to the second row in the Maharashtra assembly when he was the leader of the opposition. It was then that the media also began noticing Fadnavis. Khadse had also told then-BJP president Rajnath Singh to appoint Fadnavis as the party’s state president in 2013 under pressure from the late Gopinath Munde.

But after Munde’s untimely death in May 2014, political equations changed rapidly in the state. With Nitin Gadkari in Narendra Modi’s cabinet, Khadse had expected to be considered for the CM post but Fadnavis was chosen with Modi’s backing.

Khadse was made the revenue minister in the Fadnavis cabinet but he did not hide his displeasure and openly said that the BJP should have given the post of CM to someone from “Bahujan Samaj”.

Soon, Khadse found his political career in trouble after reports emerged accusing him of corruption and having links with the underworld. This led to Khadse’s resignation in the first year of the Fadnavis government. Khadse was later cleared of all the charges but he was not reinstated as a minister.

Girish Mahajan, a BJP MLA from Khadse’s Jalgoan district, was promoted in the last five years to counter the veteran leader. Mahajan was made the state water resource minister in Fadnavis’s cabinet and continues to be a close aide of the leader.

In the 2019 election, Khadse was denied a ticket from the seat he had won six times in a row. His daughter was fielded from the seat but lost, after which Khadse became vocal about his complaints with Fadavis’s style of functioning and “sidelining of Bahujan leaders in the BJP”.

Similarly, Pankaja was never rehabilitated in the BJP after her loss in the assembly election last year and the post of the leader of opposition in the state legislative council was given to a relatively junior leader, Pravin Darekar. Darekar was with Raj Thackeray’s MNS until a few years ago.

Pankaja and Khadse were not even considered for MLC seats when relatively low-profile people close to Fadnavis had made it to the council, adding to the frustration of the Bahujan leaders and their supporters.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.