Amidst a volley of allegations thrown at Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, Congress has demanded the Minister to be sacked.
The Congress, on Tuesday, asked the state’s governor Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao, to remove the senior BJP leader from office. Sanjay Nirupam, Mumbai Congress President said the party delegation which met with Rao, drew his attention to issues like records showing calls from gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s Karachi residence to Khadse’s mobile and his alleged misuse of power to buy a piece of land owned by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) near Pune, among other things.
Khadse has denied all allegations.
In Pune, Hemant Gavande, a local builder who first levelled allegations against Khadse with regard to the MIDC land, has approached the police seeking action against the minister. Gavande has alleged that a 3-acre plot in Bhosari MIDC was bought by Khadse’s wife and son-in-law for just Rs 3.75 crore from its original owner, while its market value was Rs 40 crore.
Khadse, refuted Gavande’s allegations, saying that his credibility should be checked.
There is a case registered against him (Gavande) in Pune for fraudulently forging documents to grab land belonging to the Agriculture College, and the police probe into that case is in the final stage. There are some people whose interests were hurt after I started taking action against their shady deals and now they are ganging up against me.Eknath Khadse, Revenue Minister, Maharashtra
Adding to his troubles, former Aam Aadmi Party leader Anjali Damania also levelled allegations against him on Tuesday, with regard to an irrigation project. She alleged that the senior state BJP leader, when he was a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the late 90s, had conceived the Tapi Irrigation Development Corporation, and awarded contracts to his relatives and supporters.
Damania threatened to stage a hunger strike in front of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ residence from Wednesday evening, if he did not sack the minister and initiate action.
(With inputs from PTI.)