I will expose those behind allegations in 8 days: Khadse

As leader of the opposition in the assembly, Eknath Khadse faced off with Congress and NCP ministers on several issues. Now, the BJP heavyweight from north Maharashtra is at the receiving end. Having been named in a series of controversies over the past two weeks, the state’s revenue minister told HT on Wednesday that all the allegations against him are false and that is a conspiracy against him, which he will expose in eight days. Excerpts from an interview:

Your response to the allegations is that you are being framed. Who is framing you and why?

As Leader of the opposition I exposed many people, and after coming to power I rectified many things. I know who is trying to get back at me now. I have all the information about the people behind the allegations but am awaiting solid evidence. They are two or three possible reasons why they are targeting me – to defame the government and the revenue minister, to defame the BJP, and to defame me as an individual.

You have been accused to speaking with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim on the phone. It is alleged that calls were made from his residence to your cell number…

You tell anyone in the country that you can speak with Dawood and he will say, ‘Are you mad?’ He is a terrorist. Why does Eknath Khadse need to speak with a terrorist? I myself asked chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to investigate the allegations through the Anti-Terrorist Squad. The probe is still on. If it is proved that I spoke to Dawood, I will have to take responsibility for resorting to anti-national activities. And if it is not proved, then those who are making false allegations against me will have to face the music. I have information that the address mentioned by the hacker is not Dawood’s. I have verified the address from people living in Karachi through our MLC Gurumukh Jagwani, who is originally from there. This information has been submitted to the police as well.

If you know who is conspiring against you, why aren’t you naming them?

I will come out with concrete proof in the next eight days. Let the police conduct their investigation for now.

Are these people connected to your party?

I don’t think they are from my party. I think many people suffered huge losses because of my decisions as revenue minister. If someone cheated the government, then as a minister, I had to act.

Many of the allegations have been made by members of the Aam Aadmi Party.

If a dog bites a man, it is not news, but if a man bites a dog, then it becomes news. Same is the case with AAP. By making baseless and false allegations, they want some publicity. They have to prove all the allegations against me. If they do so, I will resign.

After coming to power there were differences between you and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis over the CM’s post. Have they been sorted out yet?

There were no differences between us. Devendraji has been in politics for 15 years, whereas I have completed around 40 years. Despite this, I never thought of him as a junior during my stint as opposition leader. Both of us take these allegations seriously and are getting to the root of them.