Eknath Khadse (born 2 September 1952) is a politician and a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra state.

[11] Hailing from the influential Leva Patil community in North Maharashtra, Khadse quickly positioned himself as an OBC leader.

He was close to then-deputy CM and BJP leader Gopinath Munde and handled finance and irrigation portfolios between 1995 and 1999.

[14] On 13 December 2005, Eknath Khadse was suspended for six months from Maharashtra state assembly's lower house due to making derogatory remarks against the then-speaker Babasaheb Kupekar and Deputy speaker Pramod Shende in their chambers.

[25] Khadse blamed internal party politics, specifically Devendra Fadnavis and Girish Mahajan, for denial of a ticket.

Realtor Hemant Gavande leveled charges of land grabbing against him, alleging that Khadse had misused his position as the State Revenue Minister to illegally execute sales deeds for a three-acre (1.2 ha) industrial plot at Bhosari in Pune District in the names of his wife and son-in-law.

[32] Former Aam Aadmi Party politician and activist Anjali Damania gone on hunger strike and demanded inquiry against Eknath Khadse.

[33] She broke her hunger strike after then-CM Devendra Fadnavis assured her that he would do a proper investigation of the Pune land deal and other corruption accusations of Khadse.

In the retaliation Khadse filed case against her at Muktainagar accusing her maligning his image by submitting false affidavits at Bombay High court and seek her arrest.

[8] His daughter-in-law Raksha Khadse is a member of the 18th Lok Sabha from the Raver constituency, serving her third term and currently Minister of State for Youth and Sports.