Having been driven to wall over allegations of misuse of office and conflict of interest in the Pune land deal and other cases, Maharashtra Revenue Minister and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse on Saturday finally toed the party line and resigned from his post, prompting Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to appoint a retired High Court judge to enquire into the charges against the outgoing Minister.
Khadse — whose continuance in office had become untenable after the BJP’s central leadership took serious cognizance of a report submitted by the Chief Minister — drove to Fadnavis’ official residence “Varsha” and offered to put in his papers.
An hour later, Khadse addressed a news conference in the presence of State BJP president Raosaheb Danve-Patil and debunked the allegations as “misleading, baseless and defamatory in nature”, but said that keeping in with the BJP’s traditions, he had already told the CM that he would like to put in his papers and would do so after the news conference.
Soon after Khadse submitted his resignation, the CM said, “I have accepted it and sent it to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. A retired High Court judge will be appointed to probe charges against Khadse”.
The countdown for Khadse’s exit had begun on Thursday after Fadnavis met BJP’s president Amit Shah and submitted a “factual report” about the allegations faced by the number-two minister in the Maharashtra Cabinet.
Having made up its mind to give marching orders to Khadse, the BJP’s central leadership had waited for the Rajya Sabha and State Council polls to get over on Friday, before it formally sounded him out on the need for him to put in his papers.
Embroiled as he was in four major controversies — the arrest of a person claiming to be his “personal aide” in a bribery case, the Dawood call log case, the Pune land deal and an expose that his son-in-law Manish Khevalkar moves around in an illegally modified limousine — Khadse faced a worst-ever political crisis during the last three weeks.
Not a day passed since May 14 when the ACB arrested one Gajanan Patil who claimed himself to be his “personal aide” for allegedly demanding a Rs30-crore bribe from an entrepreneur over a land allotment issue, Khadse did not clarify matters relating to various controversies involving him.
Two of the most serious controversies that Khadse faced were: that several calls were received on Khadse’s cell phone no. 9423073667 from Karachi-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s wife Mehjabeen Shaikh between September 2015 to April 2016 and he, his wife Mandakini and son-in-law Girish Chaudhary had hatched a conspiracy and cornering a 3-acre plot of MIDC land “worth Rs65 crore” at a nominal price of Rs3.75 crore.
So much so that Pune-based blower Hemant Gawande on Monday lodged criminal complaint against Khadse with the local Band Garden Police station against him, his wife Mandakini, son-in-law Girish Chaudhary for allegedly hatching a conspiracy and cornering a 3-acre plot of MIDC land.
What made matters worse was that Shiv Sena’s Industries Minister Subhash Desai went to town suggesting that Khadsehad erred in purchased in land belonging to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation ( MIDC) in the names of family members. The senior MIDC officials publicly opined that the purchase was “illegal”.
Earlier in the afternoon when he announced his decision to resign from his post, Khadse made no bones about disgust over the kind of “media trial” that he faced during the last three years. “During my 40 years of political career, I have never experienced the kind of media trial that I faced during the recent weeks. Ever since allegations surfaced, I have clarified matters. I have also demand proof for the baseless allegations that my opponents have been making. None of my opponents has so far provided any proof of the allegations made against me,” he said.
Khadse said that he would expose all those behind attempts to destroy his 40-year-long political career through baseless allegations.
Meanwhile, in what came as an embarrassment for the ruling BJP, the workers of its ally Shiv Sena celebrated Khadse’s resignation from the State Cabinet by bursting crackers in the Minister’s home district of Jalgaon in north Maharashtra. It may be recalled that Sena’s spokesperson Sanjay Raut had demanded Khadse’s resignation over the allegations against him.