Politics in Maharashtra has Eknath Khadse will prove to be the BJP’s prodigal son, when he returns home any day of the coming week, ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha polling in Maharashtra. For, he needs the BJP, and the BJP needs him at a juncture when every seat is important in its run-up to retaining the New Delhi throne. The BJP has accepted controversial figures into its fold over the past decade, many from Maharashtra in recent times. So, taking Khadse back does not appear to be an issue. After all, he is the party’s own, the senior most in 2014, who had toiled hard to bring the BJP ‘acche din’ in Maharashtra. Barely into the second year of his high-profile Cabinet minister’s office, he was in charge of over a dozen departments in the Devendra Fadnavis government, but he fell out with the party, the state leadership in particular, over an alleged corruption case. He was asked to quit the Cabinet in the latter part of 2016.

Khadse’s woes didn’t end there. While he and his family faced probe agencies and courts, he was denied a ticket in the 2019 Assembly polls. His daughter Rohini was fielded instead. She lost the election by only 2,000 votes. A year later, Khadse quit the BJP to join the undivided NCP in the soaring heat of October 2020. The MVA government was in power. He was made an MLC and expected even more in political rehabilitation from his new party boss Sharad Pawar. The party he was part of, was thrown out of power soon, and later split into two. Khadse stared at a blank future again, but not for very long. The equations changed in the state BJP. Some of his friends found a place of pride at the top in New Delhi’s party organisation. Meanwhile, tainted figures, who faced more serious cases than Khadse, were drafted as allies to consolidate the BJP’s 2019 campaign. That seems to have upped the chances of Khadse’s comeback despite his detractors’ reservations. Some local opponents from his home district Jalgaon have sensed the insecurity Khadse would bring to them when he formally gets inducted in the party fold. They will not be able to do much about it, but only cringe. It’s once and for all when the BJP high command decides.