BJP

Eknath Khadse

Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra

irrigation scam

Untitled Carousel Aaditya Thackeray takes oath as MLA, shakes hands with Devendra Fadnavis The 29-year-old son of Sena chief also went up to all senior members including Devendra Fadnavi, Chandrakant Patil and Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil to greet them.

Vinod Tawde

Devendra Fadnavis

Untitled Carousel Supriya Sule welcomes Ajit Pawar, Aaditya Thackeray with hugs; newly-elected MLAs take oath At the entrance of the assembly, Sule was warmly welcoming all newly-elected members, irrespective of the parties they belonged to, as they entered the Vidhan Bhavan to take oath as MLAs.

Maharashtra Govt Formation: Aaditya Thackeray takes oath as MLA 00:33

Seniorleaderwho has found himself in the political wilderness for the last four years is now hitting back, mincing no words to attack his own party which will now have to contend with sitting in the Opposition.After dubbing's resignation as deputy chief minister ofa 'face-saving act', Khadse claimed that they had proofs of, but they sold it in 'raddi' (sold as scrap).Khadse, who was denied a BJP ticket to contest the polls, initially filed his candidature as an independent but ultimately withdrew it after BJP gave his daughter Rohini a chance to contest. Rohini Khadse lost the elections to independent candidate Chandrakant Nimba Patil. Khadse also said that if the party had taken along senior leaders, it would certianly have won more seats."If the party had taken along, Chandrashekar Bawankule and senior leaders like me, it would have won 25 more seats," said Khadse.On Tuesday, Khadse, a known detractor of Fadnavis, attacked his party saying the state had never seen such dirty and principal less politics."The political experiments underway in the state are not suitable to the dignity of the state," said Khadse as Ajit Pawar andresigned as CM and Deputy CM. "My personal opinion is that BJP should not have taken support of Ajit Pawar. He is an accused in the massive irrigation scam and faces many allegations, so we should not have allied with him," possibly echoing the voices of many within the BJP.He also alleged that the BJP and Sena should have amicably resolved the issues between themselves.Khadse also said that if being a party loyalist was a crime then he had no qualms being called a criminal.Khadse has been on the backfoot since corruption charges cropped up against him during the first term of Devendra Fadnavis, forcing him to resign as state Revenue Minister in June 2016.