Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | Eknath Khadse opens up front against Devendra Fadnavis

Mumbai: Veteran politician Eknath Khadse, who expected a respectable return to the BJP, has launched a scathing attack against Devendra Fadnavis claiming that he was offered the post of Governor. However, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the party high-command would take a call after the Ganesh festival.

“Whatever decision the BJP's central leadership takes will be accepted. We will hold talks with the party leadership and a decision will be made after the ongoing Ganesh festival,” Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur on Saturday.

The 72-year-old Natha Bhau, as Khadse is popularly known, belongs to the Leva-Patil community, which falls under the OBC category.

Khadse, a grassroots politician, efficient administrator, and a powerful orator, hails from Muktainagar in the Jalgaon district and wields influence in the North Maharashtra-Khandesh region.

Owing to differences with BJP’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his North Maharashtra pointsman Girish Mahajan, Khadse left the BJP in October 2020 joined the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. Because of his experience, he was made an MLC by Pawar, who now heads the NCP (SP) after the split by Ajit Pawar, who controls the real NCP.

Mentored by late Pramod Mahajan and then by Gopinath Munde, Khadse rose from being a sarpanch of Kothali village to being the no. 2 in the government. In between, he became the Leader of the Opposition. However, his dream of becoming the Chief Minister never came true.

Khadse had been an MLA winning the Muktainagar seat six times -- in 1990,1995,1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

Khadse’s daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse had won the 2014, 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha seat of Raver and is now a union minister in the Narendra Modi government.

Khadse’s daughter Rohini Khadse is the NCP (SP)’s state women wing chief.

In April, in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Khadse met BJP President J P Nadda and this paved the way for his formal return. However, the delay has upset him.

A couple of days ago, Khadse said: “I was not keen on returning to the BJP fold, but senior leaders of the party insisted on it. When I met BJP president J P Nadda, he felicitated me with a scarf, and declared that I had become part of the BJP.

"To a query on who could be coming in the way of his joining the BJP, Khadse said, "It could be Fadnavis and Girish Mahajan…Fadnavis had told me that my name would be recommended for the post of Governor. I told him to tell the truth as quite often he had said that he would do this and that but nothing had happened.”