MUMBAI: Angered by the BJP Eknath Khadse on Tuesday dubbed the development a “conspiracy” by certain leaders and launched a frontal attack on state unit chief Chandrakant Patil.
The BJP has been keeping Khadse at the arm’s length since 2016 when he was made to resign as a minister in the then BJP government headed by Devendra Fadnavis over allegations of corruption.Fadnavis and Khadse don’t enjoy a good political rapport.
He was denied a ticket in the October 2019 Assembly polls from his home turf Muktainagar in Jalgaon district. Though the BJP fielded his daughter, she lost to a Shiv Sena rebel. Struggling to keep himself politically relevant, Khadse had hoped that he would be nominated on one of the four seats from the BJP’s quota for the May 21 polls for total nine seats.
However, the party denied nominations not only to Khadse, but also to seniors like Pankaja Munde, Vinod Tawde and Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Most of them are believed to be detractors of former chief minister Fadnavis.
“This is a conspiracy against people like me who had served the party for 40 years and others by some 4-5 state leaders who are misleading Central leadership,” Khadse said. He accused state BJP president Patil of reneging on his promise of fielding then Kothrud MLA Medha Kulkarni in the MLC polls. Kulkarni was denied ticket in the assembly polls to make way for Patil to contest from her constituency in Pune.
“Had her name appeared in the list of BJP nominees, I would have felt nice. This simply means that Patil did not keep his words. However, after nominating NCP’s ex-Rajya Sabha MP Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, the same Chandrakant Patil says that he had kept his words,” Khadse said. The elections to nine seats are set to be unopposed with only as many candidates filing their nominations.
(With Agency Inputs ).

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us

Save