Congress today asked Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to sack Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse in view of the recent controversies surrounding the senior BJP leader.
Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said the party delegation which met Rao at Raj Bhavan drew his attention to issues like records showing calls from gangster Dawood Ibrahim's Karachi residence to Khadse's mobile, his alleged misuse of power to buy a piece of land owned by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation near Pune, and the arrest of his alleged PA Gajanan Patil in a bribery case.
Khadse has denied the allegations in all the three matters.
"We also sought the Governor's intervention in dissolving the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai as it has become a hotbed of corruption during the last 20 years' rule of Shiv Sena and BJP," Nirupam said.
Meanwhile, Khadse attended a party meeting at the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's official residence 'Varsha' in south Mumbai today.
"The meeting was in connection with the Rajya Sabha elections," Khadse said.
State BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told reporters here this evening that allegations against Khadse regarding the MIDC plot were "totally baseless".
"The statement made by the industries minister Subhash Desai (of Shiv Sena) on this issue is based on incomplete information. MIDC did not acquire this land," Bhandari said.
Desai had said the land purchased by Khadse's family near Pune belonged to the MIDC (and hence it could not be sold).
