Someone from 'Bahujan Samaj' should have become CM: Eknath Khadse

Sanjay Pawar
New Delhi: At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making efforts to bring the Shiv Sena onboard in Maharashtra, its senior leader and now a Cabinet Minister in Devendra Fadnavis government, Eknath Khadse, has delivered a blow by saying someone from the ‘Bahujan Samaj' (non-Brahmin) should have become the Chief Minister.
Khadse, who won from Muktainagar assembly in Jalgaon in the recently concluded assembly poll, said that ‘Bahujan Samaj' wanted someone from among them to become the Chief Minister.
"... people wanted a Chief Minister from the ‘Bahujan Samaj'. I am not unhappy, I am happy that we have formed the government on own,” Khadse told reporters at Pandharpur after performing puja here to mark Kartiki Ekadashi.
He, however, very quickly added that he will perform the responsibilities which have been given to him by the Chief Minister.
Khadse has been given revenue, minorities development and wakf, agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy development and fisheries and state excise in the new BJP government.
He is the first Cabinet colleague of Fadnavis to express dissent in public.