Khadse meets Fadnavis

Mumbai, Feb 5 (PTI) Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader Eknath Khadse met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the latter’s residence here, a source said on Wednesday.

The meeting took place at `Sagar’, Fadnavis’s current official bungalow in south Mumbai, on Tuesday night, said the source close to the chief minister.

“Khadse met the CM for some personal work. It was not a political meeting,” he added, without disclosing what transpired during the meeting.

Khadse, who was with the Bharatiya Janata Party for nearly four decades, stepped down from the Fadnavis-led Maharashtra cabinet in 2016 over a controversial land purchase by his family. Later, he quit the BJP and joined the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.

Before the Lok Sabha elections last year, Khadse tried to return to the BJP’s fold, but it did not materialise. He then blamed Fadnavis for blocking his return.

His daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse is the Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports.