Maharashtra Assembly elections: Rift in BJP as Eknath Khadse files nomination from Muktainagar

Mumbai, Oct 01: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the names of 125 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls on Tuesday that will take place on October 21.

The party also said that it will contest the election in an alliance with the Shiv Sena and some smaller parties.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will contest the polls from the Nagpur South West seat and the Maharashtra unit chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chandrakant Patil, from Kothrud, according to the list released by the party's general secretary, Arun Singh.

However, names of three former Maharashtra Ministers were found missing.

Among those who did not make the cut in the first list ar Former Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, former Education minister Vinod Tawde, and former Housing Minister Prakash Mehta.

Khadse who was facing allegations of corruption and misusing his office had to resign in 2016 and was not inducted in to the cabinet since then. Khadse one of the party's senior most leaders in the state has been slamming and embarrassing the party as well as Fadnavis.

Meanwhile, Khadse who has represented Muktainagar in Jalgaon has filed his nominationfor the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections.

Speaking to ANI, Khadse said,''I've filed my nomination today. My name is not in the list issued by party, but possibility of me getting ticket cannot be ruled out.I don't know if this seat is going to be with Shiv Sena or with BJP, what I know that I've been a loyalist to BJP for past 42 years.''

''If being loyalist to the party is a crime,then yes I am a criminal. In past 25 years from the times of Pramod Mahajan and Gopinath Munde ji, I was the part of decision-making bodies in BJP Maharashtra. I decided tickets for others,'' he added.

In its first list for Maharashtra, the BJP dropped the names of 12 sitting MLAs while 91 sitting MLAs have been given a ticket. The first list of BJP candidates also contains the names of five leaders who switched from Congress, four who quit Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and two independents.