MSS founder's wife quits BJP to join NCP

In a shot in the arm for the NCP before the Lok Sabha elections, Rekha Khedekar, the wife of controversial Maratha Sewa Sangh (MSS) founder Purushottam Khedekar, has quit the BJP to join the party.The MSS is demanding reservations for the Maratha community and has formed a religion of its own called ‘Shiv Dharma’ with Bahujan icons as gods. Maratha-Kunbis comprise a third of Maharashtra’s population and control the state’s politics and cooperative sector.Rekha, a three-term BJP MLA from Chikhli in Vidarbha’s Buldhana, is eager to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Buldhana against the Shiv Sena’s sitting MP Prataprao Jadhav. Speaking to dna, she confirmed reports of her impending entry into the NCP. “I have decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls,” Rekha said.“The BJP denied me a nomination… despite this being a winning seat,” she said.She is likely to formally join the NCP after Dussehra.