NE NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, OCT 23
Former Maharashtra BJP leader Eknath Khadse on Friday joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the presence of the party’s chief Sharad Pawar.
आज मुंबई येथील @NCPspeaks च्या प्रदेश कार्यालयात आदरणीय खा. मा.शरदचंद्र जी पवार (@PawarSpeaks) साहेबांच्या उपस्थितीत भाजपचे ज्येष्ठ नेते @EknathGKhadse जी व त्यांची कन्या ॲड.@Rohini_khadse यांनी राष्ट्रवादी काँग्रेस पक्षात प्रवेश केला.त्याबद्दल दोघांचेही पक्षात सहर्ष स्वागत.(१/२) pic.twitter.com/9R4U3tzRMo
— ANIL DESHMUKH (@AnilDeshmukhNCP) October 23, 2020
Sulking since his unceremonious exit from the Devendra Fadnavis-led ministry in 2016 over landgrab allegations, Khadse (68) on Wednesday quit the BJP. The same day, state NCP chief Jayant Patil announced he would be joining the Pawar-led party.
NCP is part of the ruling alliance in the state along with Shiv Sena and Congress, whose Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government assumed office 11 months ago.
Khadse, former Maharashtra Revenue Minister and also an ex-Leader of Opposition in state Assembly, was inducted into the NCP at the party’s head office here.
The leader, who flew in here on Thursday from his native Jalgaon district in north Maharashtra, was in political wilderness during the last four years, though he quit the BJP only two days ago.
Khadse’s formal entry into NCP, scheduled at 2 pm, was delayed by over an hour as Pawar was in a meeting with party minister Jitendra Awhad.
Jayant Patil welcomed Khadse at the party, by offering him a scarf.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Khadse had blamed Fadnavis for “trying to destroy his life” and political career, over three decades of it, spent in strengthening the BJP in Maharashtra.
Responding to the charges levelled by Khadse against him, Fadnavis (50) had said his former BJP colleague was speaking “half-truth”, adding Khadse had painted him a villain while making the allegations against him.
