BJP may suspend Khadse to quell Maharashtra revolt

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, December 7

The BJP may suspend senior leader Eknath Khadse from the party after he rejected overtures by state party president Chandrakant Patil today, according to sources here.

Patil along with former water resources minister Girish Mahajan, who was in Khadse’s hometown Jalgaon ostensibly for a party meeting today, sought a meeting to dissuade him from forming a group of Other Backward Class leaders within the BJP. “However, Khadse snubbed them and did not attend the meeting,” a senior BJP leader said here today.

BJP sources say Patil and Mahajan are expected to brief party president Amit Shah on Khadse’s activities. “There is pressure from a section of the party to take disciplinary action against Khadse for his statements in the media,” a BJP leader said here.

Khadse, who was sidelined by former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, has teamed up with former women and child development minister Pankaja Munde and former education minister Vinod Tawde to bring together several OBC leaders belonging to the BJP under one umbrella. “Nearly a dozen OBC leaders from the BJP had met Khadse at his home in Jalgaon earlier this week where they decided to participate in Munde’s rally in Parli next week,” a BJP leader said.

Confirming that prominent OBC leaders from the BJP would be meeting in Parli next week, Khadse told mediapersons in Jalgaon today that a message would be sent to the BJP leadership.

“The meeting being organised by Pankaja, daughter of Gopinath Munde, will be a big gathering of top OBC leaders who are unhappy with the BJP,” Khadse said.

Munde had indicated on social media that she would announce her future plans at the December 12 rally.

According to sources, the Shiv Sena is working to breach the BJP’s support base among the OBC community which was largely crafted by Gopinath Munde and other senior leaders over the past 25 years. CM Uddhav Thackeray has sent emissaries to meet Munde, Khadse and other leaders.