Fissures are beginning to appear in Maharashtra BJP. Senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse has once again taken on former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for the less-than-expected numbers in the recently concluded assembly elections and held some party leaders responsible for the defeat of his daughter Rohini Khadse and Pankaja Munde. Referring to 105 seats that are less than the number won in 2014, Khadse said that action should be taken against the person who spearheaded the party’s campaign in the state. He, however, refused to name Devendra Fadnavis.
Interacting with reporters, Khadse said: “Pankaja and I believe that some party leaders worked to defeat her and Rohini Singh. I have informed state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil about this.” Khadse served as revenue and agriculture minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government from 2014 to 2016.
He was removed from the ministry after corruption charges surfaced against him. In the assembly polls, the BJP denied a ticket to the former minister. It, however, fielded her daughter Rohini Khadse from Muktainagar, where her challenger was Shiv Sena rebel Chandrakant Nimba Patil.
Rohini lost to Patil by a very close margin of 1957 votes. However, Pankaja Munde, the daughter of former BJP stalwart late Gopinath Munde, was defeated by her cousin Dhananjay Munde by over 30,000 votes. Khadse squarely puts the blame on the top leadership of the saffron party, which could not form the government with Sena over the differences on the chief minister’s post.
This is the second time Khade attacked Devendra Fadnavis. Earlier, he had said that Fadnavis demolished the party’s reputation by taking support from NCP’s Ajit Pawar. He had said that BJP should not have taken the support of Ajit Pawar. “He is an accused in the massive irrigation scam and faces many allegations, so we should not have allied with him,” he was quoted as saying by ANI. Pankaja Munde too is not very happy with the party leadership and is expected to announce her future course of action on December 12.