Khadse will be joining Nationalist Congress Party, according to an announcement by NCP leader and Maharashtra Minister Jayant Patil.
In a major jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra, senior partly leader Eknath Khadse has quit the party citing allegations on him.
Confirming the development, the senior leader said that he has no complaints with the party leadership but has been wrongly accused.
"During the last 40 years, I worked on increasing BJP's reach. I have no complaint from BJP central leaders but I was falsely accused. My complaint is only against Devendra Fadnavis" he said.
Khadse will be joining Nationalist Congress Party, according to an announcement by NCP leader and Maharashtra Minister Jayant Patil.
Patil said that Khadse he showed interest in joining NCP and will be formally inducted into the party.
"Eknath Khadse promoted BJP in Maharashtra over years. I've been informed that BJP Leader Eknath Khadse has resigned from his party. We've decided to give him an entry in NCP. He will be formally inducted into NCP at 2 pm on Friday," he said.
Reacting to the news of Khadse's resignation, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that if he joins the Mahavikas Aghadi, he is welcome
Notably, former Maharashtra chief minister BJP Devendra Fadnavis has refused to comment on the matter saying that the party has not received his resignation letter so far.
There were speculations about Khadse quitting the BJP for a while but former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had dismissed it on Tuesday, saying there are talks every day of such kind of "muhurat".
It is being said that Khadse might be given a ministerial berth in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, where NCP is present as a coalition partner. He might be given the agricultural ministry which is currenly occupied by Shiv Sena.
Along with him, some of his supporting MLAs may also quit BJP and move to NCP.
It may be recalled that Khadse had to resign from the Fadnavis government after allegations of corruption. Since then, he was being neglected in the party. In the 2019 Maharashtra elections, he wasn't even given ticket by the party. Although his daughter Rohini was given the ticket, she lost.
Khadse's daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse contested the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket and won. However, it is not yet clear if she will leave the party as well.
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 "Eknath Khadse")
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