Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday met party leader Eknath Khadse, who suffered a heart attack, at Bombay Hospital.
Former Maharashtra Minister Khadse suffered a heart attack and was admitted to a hospital in Jalgaon. He was shifted to Bombay Hospital with the help of an air ambulance on Sunday evening after his health worsened.
Supriya Sule on Eknath Khadse health
Party leader and MP Supriya Sule on Sunday in a post on X said she is in touch with Rohini Khadse, daughter of Eknath Khadse and the president of the women’s wing of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. "Khadse Saheb is undergoing treatment and it is believed that he will recover soon and return home safely. I pray to God that he gets well soon," Sule said in a post in Marathi.
In a post earlier in the day, Rohini Khadse said her father was admitted to a hospital in Jalgaon as he was not feeling well for the past two days. He is being moved to a hospital in Mumbai to exercise caution and his condition is stable, she said. “No reason to worry,” she added.
Who is Eknath Khadse?
Khadse was a senior Maharashtra BJP leader who quit the party to join the NCP in 2020. He was elected to the state legislative council in 2022. He hails from the Leva Patil community, which is one of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities with a significant presence in North Maharashtra.
In October 2020, he switched his allegiance and joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), claiming that Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was trying to ruin his political career. Subsequently, in June 2022, he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) from the NCP's quota.
Khadse served as a senior minister in the Devendra Fadnavis-led government from 2014 to 2019. However, he had to step down from his position due to allegations of using his office for personal gain in a land deal in Bhosari, Pune, in 2016. He did not rejoin the state cabinet for the remainder of the government's term. Additionally, in 2019, he was not given a party ticket for the state assembly elections.
