Mumbai: A video purportedly showing a group of women offering ‘namaz’ at the historic ‘Shaniwarwada’, a palace built in the early 18th century as the seat of the Peshwas of the Maratha Empire, last Friday in Pune, has circulated widely on social media platforms.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Medha Kulkarni sprang into action on seeing the video. She, along with her karyakartas and workers of Sakal Hindu Samaj, a Maharashtra-based loose coalition of Hindutva organisations “dedicated to bringing justice to Hindus”, launched a protest at ‘Shaniwarwada’. More shockingly, they “purified” the place where the women offered ‘namaz’ with cow urine.
“Shaniwar Wada is a historic site. It is a symbol of our victory, the centre from which the Maratha Empire expanded from Attock to Cuttack. If someone comes here and recites Namaz, we will not tolerate it…,” Kulkarni wrote on X in the aftermath of the incident, invoking criticism not only from the Opposition but also from her Mahayuti partners.
On Tuesday, Shiv Sena (Shinde)-BJP union leader Ravindra Dhangekar targeted Medha Kulkarni, accusing her of disturbing the peace and harmony of Pune.
“She is an MP and comes from Kothrud, but to date, she has not spoken against the Ghaiwal gang that is spreading menace there. She is also silent about the Jain trust property going to a developer. But she has shown her aggression in trying to disturb the harmony in the city,” Dhangekar told the media.
Not only Shiv Sena, but also the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) has attacked Kulkarni, with leader Rupali Thombre calling for a police complaint against her.
“Kulkarni is diverting the issue and creating tensions between the two communities. I demand a police case against her. A grave has been there on the premises for several years. Offering prayers is not a crime. She created an unnecessary controversy,” Thombre told the media on Monday.
“I am not agitating against the BJP, but Kulkarni. Our leaders should counsel her. Our party believes in the principles of Phule, Shahu, and Ambedkar, and we respect the Constitution,” Thombre said, referring to Jyotirao Phule, Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj, and Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
Against this backdrop, the BJP, however, asked its alliance partners to follow the ‘Mahayuti dharma‘.
Speaking to ThePrint, BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said, “Mahayuti partners should follow the Mahayuti dharma. Whenever the time comes, such issues will be up for discussion on the right platform.”
“As far as Medha tai, she knows the feelings of Punekars. She always picks up issues close to the heart of Punekars, and she has their support,” he added.
However, this is not the first time that Medha Kulkarni has taken a hardline stand. The 55-year-old is a three-time corporator of the Pune Municipal Corporation and served as the Kothrud legislator between 2014 and 2019. However, in 2019, she was denied an assembly ticket that Chandrakant Patil received in her stead. Following that, Kulkarni, an old-time loyalist of the party, felt somewhat sidelined for five years between 2019 and 2024, before her nomination to the Rajya Sabha in 2024.
“She does speak aggressively, but I feel this communal politics is a deliberate attempt by Medha Kulkarni to rise in the leadership ranks in Pune. Also, with the upcoming local body polls, this will benefit the party only,” political analyst Hemant Desai told ThePrint.
ThePrint has reached Medha Kulkarni via phone calls. This report will be updated if and when she responds.
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Corporate to MP by going against local BJP
Medha Kulkarni, a lecturer by profession, belongs to the Brahmin community from Pune—a vote bank that has been loyal to the BJP.
She was a corporator in Kothrud, lying in the western part of Pune, for 15 years, before the party gave her an assembly ticket for the first time in 2014.
She won the Kothrud assembly seat, which has a strong Brahmin presence, by defeating the then-undivided Shiv Sena’s Chandrakant Mokate by a 64,000-vote margin. As Pune developed, many Brahmins from the old city moved to Kothrud, with Medha Kulkarni enjoying newfound support.
However, in 2019, when she was the sitting MLA, the party dropped her and offered her seat to Chandrakant Patil, who hails from Kolhapur. That did not go down well with Kulkarni, and she expressed her displeasure publicly.
The BJP not only irked Kulkarni but also the Brahmin community in 2019 by not fielding her as its candidate.
Against the backdrop of these public sentiments, Kulkarni adopted an aggressive stance towards Chandrakant Patil as well as the local leadership, whom she blamed for sidelining her.
From raising her voice in support of the environment in Pune and against the development project led by Patil to expressing her displeasure towards her party leaders claiming credit for the Chandani Chowk flyover, which she had been pushing for since her time as an MLA in 2014, Medha Kulkarni started ensuring that her unhappiness did not go unnoticed.
During the inauguration of the flyover, Kulkarni wrote a Facebook post. She said that she had never spoken publicly about feeling disregarded or overlooked, even when not consulted before important decisions. “However, now, I feel the need to share.”
“The pamphlets for the Chandani Chowk inauguration in Kothrud were initially disheartening. Nitin Gadkari and Devendra Fadnavis deserve credit for the Chandani Chowk project. But who initiated this with them?” Kulkarni wrote, sharing the poster of the event, in which her name was missing.
She added, “In a previous public address, Gadkari mentioned: ‘I pursued this on the advice of the then MLA Medha Kulkarni’. I’ve been involved with this issue, even before the current, prominent Kothrud leaders were in the picture. Now, the current Kothrud leaders seem to claim all the credit, almost erasing figures like me. Are they trying to erase the existence of people like me?”
She accused the local BJP unit, as well as leaders like Chandrakant Patil and Murlidhar Mohol, of trying to play manipulative politics, saying that her loyalty towards the party was of no value to them.
This was in 2023, when Kulkarni also resurrected herself in Maharashtra’s political scene as the national vice president of the BJP women’s wing.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari placated her when she visited the flyover, a day after the Facebook post.
In 2023, the BJP also lost the bypolls at Kasba Peth, along with its significant Brahmin vote bank there, for the first time in 30 years, as Congress leader Ravindra Dhangekar marked his victory. The BJP had fielded an OBC candidate, Hemant Rasane, from the seat—one of the reasons it could not achieve victory, felt the party. However, denying the ticket to the family of Mukta Tilak, whose demise necessitated the bypolls, was also partially behind its defeat.
Later, in 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP did a course correction and offered Medha Kulkarni the Rajya Sabha seat. This way, the BJP sent a positive message to party loyalists in a bid to control the infighting within the Pune unit. Meanwhile, Kulkarni had made a stunning comeback.
“She publicly expressed her displeasure in 2019 when denied the BJP ticket, creating a huge sympathy wave for her,” said Desai, indicating those sentiments have worked in her favour. “And now, she has again been lifted to the extent that she now has a Rajya Sabha seat.”
Hardline Hindutva & its present relevance
Kulkarni is known for her close association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). After she entered the Rajya Sabha as an MP in 2024, she visited the RSS headquarters and the BJP local office.
Her displeasure gradually eroded. She even buried the hatchet with Murlidhar Mohol, now a Lok Sabha MP who previously served as mayor in the Pune Municipal Corporation. After the Lok Sabha elections, she accompanied Mohol—a Kothrud resident like her—to Delhi, where they sent out a message of unity.
Slowly, she got active in Pune’s local politics.
Last year, she got into a controversy for making workers paint a green wall near Sadashiv Peth’s Gyanprabodhini School in saffron hues.
Taking to X, Kulkarni then wrote, “I went to that place today to check it out. It was fun to paint saffron on green…. We removed the green colour and painted the wall saffron to symbolise Hindu pride. This is part of awakening Hindus. We are proud of this action and will not tolerate attempts to convert such places into ‘mazars‘ or start ‘namaz’.”
She was also widely accused of allegedly threatening the trustees of the Shaikh Salahuddin Dargah to stop azaan during the Hanuman Jayanti celebrations, after which the trustees demanded police action against her.
She, however, denied their claims and, in turn, said that she did not threaten but requested them to lower the volume, as the aarti was ongoing at the nearby Punyashwar temple during Hanuman Jayanti.
Earlier this year, Kulkarni called for naming the Pune railway station after the legendary Thorele Bajirao Peshwa, also known as Bajirao I, the Peshwa (prime minister) under Chatrapati Shahu I between 1720 and 1740. He is known for his military prowess, as well as the expansion of the Maratha Empire.
Her hardline stance was also visible when she demanded that the famous Sarasbaug—a garden in the heart of the city with a Ganesh temple on the site—should be closed for the day after some observed that Muslims were allegedly eating meat at the garden.
In June this year, she wrote to the PMC, saying that Hindu sentiments were getting hurt and that consuming meat at the premises was spoiling the sanctity of the temple.
Kulkarni also expressed her hardline stance when she made her displeasure known to Deputy CM Ajit Pawar after he inaugurated the Parshuram Arthik Vikas Mahamandal’s building “before” the scheduled time. She is a member of the “mahamandal (corporation)” set up for the Brahmin community.
Very recently, she stopped a local garba celebration, claiming that the festivities were allegedly violating noise pollution norms.
“She wants to prove her prowess over the city. Her politics changed over time. She was never this street-style politician, but more well-behaved and cultured. I do not think she ever did this kind of politics, but now I feel she wants to grab the attention of the party leadership, hence she is becoming more and more aggressive,” said Desai.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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