Khadse welcomes farm loan waiver, says it's not total relief

Disgruntled BJP leader Eknath Khadse has welcomed the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government's announcement of writing off farm loans upto Rs 2 lakh, but said the measure will not grant complete relief to farmers in the state.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the coalition government of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, made the announcement of the unconditional loan waiver, with a cut-off date of September 30, 2019, on Saturday.

Khadse said, "It will not be right to comment on the issue until details like the parameters (for granting the loan waiver); the number of beneficiaries etc. come to the fore.

"Though the decision (of the loan waiver) will not give a complete relief to farmers, it (the decision) is worth welcoming," he told reporters here.

Khadse also dismissed media reports of him talking about switching the BJP in case action is not taken against certain people within the state party unit for sidelining him.

"The (media) reports are wrong. I have not said so These are misleading reports," said Khadse, who was forced to resign in 2016 over allegations of impropriety in a land deal, within two years of the BJP coming to power in the state.

Khadse's recent meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Sena president Thackeray had set tongues wagging about his future political journey.

The BJP veteran was denied ticket by the party for the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly polls and it instead fielded his daughter Rohini from his home turf Muktainagar in Jalgaon district. However, she lost to a Shiv Sena rebel.