Mumbai: The Central Goods and Services Tax (GST) Commissionerate Sunday seized assets worth Rs 19 crore from BJP leader Pankaja Munde’s sugar factory in Parli, in Maharashtra’s Beed district, for alleged tax evasion.
This comes soon after Munde completed her Shiv Shakti Parikrama, an eight-day pilgrimage of Maharashtra’s Shakti Peeths and jyotirlingas earlier this month. At a time when the issue of Maratha reservation and OBC protests are at a peak in the state, the pilgrimage was seen by the BJP as an attempt by the OBC leader to consolidate her individual support base.
“It [the action] was a signal to her that any kind of rebellion or indiscipline won’t be tolerated,” said senior political analyst Hemant Desai.
Bacchu Kadu, head of Prahar Janshakti Party — a part of the state government — told the reporters on Monday in Amravati that “the action must be the result of her latest tour”.
However, BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye told ThePrint that there is no politics involved in this action.
“Pankaja tai is our leader. What has happened has nothing to do with any kind of politics. One should not read too much into this. Whatever has happened, has happened as per the law and will be dealt with accordingly,” said Upadhye.
Munde’s Vaidyanath Sugar Factory was also raided by GST officials earlier in April for alleged tax evasion. The officials had visited the non-functional factory, which had been facing financial trouble for the past six years, and collected some documents.
ThePrint reached the Central GST Aurangabad commissioner’s office via email and Pankaja Munde via calls. This report will be updated if and when responses are received.
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The politics
Since 2014, Pankaja, who is believed to be part of the Union minister Nitin Gadkari camp, is believed to have been sidelined in the party as a chasm emerged between the old guard and new guard under Devendra Fadnavis, currently Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Pankaja served as the minister of rural development, and women and child welfare in the BJP-Shiv Sena government between 2014 and 2019, when Fadnavis was the CM. But after losing from Parli in the 2019 assembly elections, she was hardly seen at any of the BJP events.
Some of her comments seemed to suggest that she was not happy with her party.
“If I have to make a decision about my future, I will call my supporters and openly declare it. I will not bow down before anyone or give up. I’ll ask my supporters not to get disheartened quickly and I will not change my stand,” she said while speaking to a gathering of people in Parli in June.
Pankaja, who lost the 2019 election to her cousin Dhananjay Munde from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was later denied nomination to the Rajya Sabha and to the Maharashtra Legislative Council in June 2022. When the new government was formed under Eknath Shinde, Munde was not considered for the cabinet.
At multiple times, she reportedly even received offers from the opposition to join them, including one from Congress. The fact that the opposition has kept its doors open for her — including the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP and Congress — this action on her could mean that the BJP wants to give her a signal to not be too rebellious and adventurous, said Desai.
During her Shiv Shakti Parikrama tour, there were photos of people showering her with flowers, putting giant garlands around her neck, crowding around her for selfies, and of leaders from different political parties coming to welcome her.
On her tour, she was accompanied by banners featuring the faces of her MP Sister Pritam Munde and her late father Gopinath Munde, who died in 2014. Gopinath had cultivated a following for the BJP within the OBC community through the 1980s and 1990s.
There were hardly any BJP flags.
“She normally talks about her father and her politics revolve around him rather than the party. Also, the cold war between Munde and Fadnavis has been going on for almost a decade now, and it seems it has reached a new height,” said Desai.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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