Mumbai: Former BJP MLA Pankaja Munde Thursday confirmed speculation that she was unhappy with the party.
Addressing a rally organised on the fifth birth anniversary of her father, the late union minister Gopinath Munde, in Beed, she announced she was quitting the core committee of the Maharashtra BJP even as she said she was not resigning from the party.
“I am a common BJP worker now. On 26 January 2020, I will reopen Gopinath Munde’s office and operate from there. I will launch the Gopinath Munde Pratisthan in that office and begin work,” she said.
Without naming former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Pankaja said she was “very pained” at the way the BJP tied up with the NCP to form the state government last month — an attempt that ultimately proved abortive.
“That reinforced my decision to step back and take stock,” she told a gathering of around 50,000 supporters.
“Munde saheb gave his life to building this party but no one gave him credit for it. I will not quit the BJP, let the party take any action it deems fit against me,” she added, drawing cheers.
Also Read: OBC-Brahmin divide weighs on BJP, 15 Maharashtra MLAs ‘in talks with Sena-NCP-Congress’
Show of strength
Pankaja’s rally at Parle, her former constituency, was seen as a show of strength organised by the politician amid reports that she was unhappy with the party. Senior party leader Eknath Khadse, who has also been sidelined in the party, was also in attendance at the rally.
Pankaja and Khadse are said to be among several OBC leaders who reportedly felt like they got a raw deal under the leadership of Fadnavis, a Brahmin.
The show of strength was also a message for her cousin Dhananjay Munde, who defeated her in this year’s assembly polls, that she was the sole custodian of her father’s political legacy.
Pankaja is believed to hold some BJP leaders, including Fadnavis, responsible for her defeat from Parli.
Rebellion was a natural progression of that hurt. Politics in Parli has seen an aggressive posturing by both Pankaja and Dhananjay since 2014, when she was appointed a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government.
Their open bitterness has spilled on to the sugar cooperatives in the Marathwada region where both are battling for control. Dhananjay, who quit the BJP amid their rivalry, is now an NCP legislator.
Speaking about the shock NCP-BJP tie-up last month, Pankaja said she was “upset and angry”.
“Gopinath Munde did not build this party to be so strong to go against its ideologies,” she told the crowd. However, Gopinath Munde shared his birthday with NCP chief Sharad Pawar (12 December), and considered him his political mentor.
Reacting to her speech, Dhananjay Munde told the media that her loss in the October polls indicated widespread anger against her.
“She was a minister, yet the opposition won the seat. She should understand the reasons for her loss,” he added. “If I have demanded that the state government build a memorial for Gopinath Mundeji, what is wrong in it? As a minister, she could have got it built, instead of demanding it now.
‘Coming into her own’
Political analysts feel Pankaja has consolidated her position as a strong OBC leader and was no longer just a representative of the Vanjari community (which falls within OBCs).
Her disgruntlement found an echo in the voices of Khadse and Prakash Mehta, another former minister who attended the rally. Both Khadse and Mehta criticised the party for the “creeping differences within the BJP”.
“Whatever Pankaja tai decides to do, we will support her,” said Khadse.
Pankaja’s rally came days after a Facebook post where she said she needed some “me time” to determine her future political course. The Facebook post was widely seen as a message that she was planning to quit the BJP.
However, her maternal cousin Poonam Mahajan, an MP, sought to allay the speculation. Pankaja’s younger sister Pritam Munde is also an incumbent BJP MP.
Among other things, Pankaja also used the rally to outline her agenda for the next few weeks. On 27 January 2020, Pankaja said, she will organise a one-day hunger strike at Aurangabad to demand drought relief.
Thereafter, she seeks to embark on a tour of drought-affected areas to garner support for her “social work”.
Also Read: Bastion lost & party not in power, BJP’s Pankaja Munde hints at major political declaration