Amid turmoil in Maharashtra BJP, senior leader Eknath Khadse meets Pawar

Khadse, who was in Delhi to meet BJP central leadership about his future in the party, stated that he will meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, on Tuesday.

The meeting, held at Pawar's residence, lasted about half an hour. Eknath Khadse has publicly stated that the Maharashtra BJP leadership was ignoring him for a long time.

According to sources, Khadse could not meet either Home Minister Amit Shah or party's Maharashtra in-charge Bhupendra Yadav as they were 'busy'.

Khadse, a strong OBC leader, is miffed at being sidelined in the BJP and blames a section of the leadership for his daughter Rohini Khadse's defeat in the recent assembly polls.

The Maharashtra leader, however, said that his meeting with Pawar was on the issue on water commission proposal and he will meet Thackeray too on Tuesday.

He said that Pawar has also enquired about the reasons for his daughter's defeat.

Eknath Khadse's meeting with Pawar comes at a time when sources say that he may take a decision over joining the NCP soon.

Khadse, once known as the second commandant in the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis government, resigned as revenue minister in 2016 over land grab allegations.

The party had also denied him the ticket this time.

Khadse had recently stated that he had been kept out of the party's decision-making process.

"I am not God. I am a human being and have emotions. I don't want to leave the party for whose growth I worked hard for more than four decades. I am still ready to work for the party," the former minister had said.