No Khadse vs Khadse in Jalgaon's Raver constituency: NCP (SCP) leader Eknath Khadse declines to contest LS polls

By Pramod Sharma NCP (SCP) senior leader and MLC Eknath Khadse on Friday announced that he will not be contesting in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due to health issues and that his daughter Rohini Khadse will also not contest from the Raver Lok Sabha constituency in Jalgaon district.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party's second list declared Raksha Khadse a sitting MP from (Jalgaon district) Raver Loksabha seat, there was speculation that Eknath Khadse's daughter Rohini Khadse or Eknath Khadse would also contest from the Raver seat. Clearing the air NCP (SCP) Senior leader and MLC Eknath Khadse after the party meeting said, "My health is not well, I will not contest the elections. My daughter Rohini is preparing to contest the state assembly elections from Muktai Nagar and she is also not interested in contesting from the Raver Lok Sabha seat. Hence we will not contest from that constituency."

Notably, the NCP MLC had suffered a heart attack in November 2023. The Raver Lok Sabha constituency is considered a BJP bastion that the party has been winning since the constituency was formed in 2008. Raksha Khadse, the current BJP MP from Raver, is Eknath Khadse's daughter-in-law. However, Eknath added that even though the Khadse would not run from the Raver constituency, the NCP (SCP) is fully prepared to contest from the Raver seat as this seat belongs to us.

"Six to seven candidates have conveyed content from the said seat and the decision on the seat in the coming days after doing surveys on it," he said. Talking about MVA seat sharing Eknath said, a decision will be taken in the next one or two days regarding seat sharing in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, almost all seats are finalised except three seats.

Rohini Khadse also spoke to ANI and said, "I am preparing for Muktai Nagar State Assembly seats I lost the seat last time." Talking about Khadse versus Khadse, Rohini said it depends on the state president Jayant Patil who will announce the official candidate for the Raver seat in the coming days.

Rohini refused to make or hint anything about the Raver Loksabha seat despite father Eknath Khadse clearing that there won't be any Khadse vs Khadse in Raver Loksabha Seat. Raksha Khadse from BJP who is a sitting Member of Parliament from Raver Loksabha seat is a daughter-in-law of Eknath Khadse who left the BJP to join than NCP now NCP (SCP).

Former Maharashtra minister and NCP member of the legislative council, Eknath Khadse suffered a heart attack in November last year. Khadse was a senior Maharashtra BJP leader who quit the party to join the NCP in 2020.