BJP leader Eknath Khadse (centre) steps down from his ministerial posts at a press conference. (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government lost its only mass leader in the state with its senior-most minister Eknath Khadse resigning on Saturday. Furthermore, political observers say the development is the result of party infighting for the top post rather than the fall out of numerous corruption charges against the leader. Mr Khadse’s followers are upset that he was asked to resign despite having received a clean chit initially.
Mr Khadse, who started his political career as a sarpanch in a small Jalgaon village in 1987, had risen to become the second most powerful minister in the current state government. Earlier, he had enjoyed the position of Leader of Opposition during the Congress-NCP regime. After the demise of BJP leader Gopinath Munde, Mr Khadse was the only mass leader in the party. He was also considered a chief minister candidate. “Bhau (Khadse) is the mass leader and almost all current BJP leaders have worked under him. It was a moral decision on his part to distance himself from his post until the charges are cleared. We are confident that no one can prove them,” BJP MLC and Khadse supporter Gurumukh Jagwani said.
Another supporter from the party’s Jalgaon unit, Uday Wagh, admitted that workers were upset over the recent goings on. “Workers have been demoralised over the entire issue. But Khadsesaheb will come clean and our workers will be strengthened,” he said.
Mr Khadse, who hails from Khandesh or north Maharashtra, took the party flag to every district and the BJP’s dominance in Jalgaon, Dhule, Nandurbar and parts of Buldana are the fruits of his labours. Also, former Congress politician Sunil Deshmukh and former NCP minister Vijaykumar Gavit had joined the BJP due to Mr Khadse’s efforts. The aggressive leader in the BJP will be missed in the Legislature even as his contemporary, the equally aggressive Congress leader Narayan Rane, has been elected to the Council. Much to political observers’ surprise, Mr Rane has openly termed the resignation a conspiracy against Mr Khadse, pointing a finger at the CM. “BJP is deliberately targeting mass leaders. On the one hand, he (Khadse) was given a clean chit, but a negative report about him was given to the party high command. Khadse could have been asked to step down at the beginning itself because the allegations against him are grave,” Mr Rane said, indicating Mr Khadse’s OBC background, as he belongs to the Leva-Patil community.
Senior political journalist Pratap Asabe pointed out that the resignation was the outcome of party infighting. “The cold war between the chief minister and Khadse is well known. The information that was leaked against Khadse was mostly by his own party members. It is difficult to say if the allegations will be proven, but the party image has definitely been dented,” Mr Asabe said.
Though the party has made it seem it has zero tolerance towards corruption, a senior BJP leader said, on the condition of anonymity, that Mr Khadse’s resignation would affect future of the party. “He was the party’s only senior leader. He has experience as the Leader of Opposition and now as the minister. He is popular among masses, especially in north Maharashtra. Now the party will have trouble in the political course distancing itself from Khadse on corruption charges. We fear that BJP should not succumb to corruption allegations like Congress,” he said.
