Pankaja Munde to Maha BJP: Stop saying we’ll return to power, start working for people

Munde is believably unhappy as she feels party’s state leaders such as Fadnavis and Maharashtra unit chief Chandrakant Patil have been deliberately cutting her to size over the past few years

Bharatiya Janata Party’s national secretary and prominent Other Backward Class (OBC) leader Pankaja Munde, in her annual Dussehra rally, advised her party colleagues to stop saying every day that they will return to power soon and instead work for the people of Maharashtra. She also took dig at her detractors from within the party saying that they will not be able to put roadblocks in her way for long.

Pankaja Munde who is disgruntled with the party for being sidelined by the leaders at state level, addressed a huge Dussehra rally at Savargaon in Beed on Friday. (HT File)

Munde, who is disgruntled with the party for being sidelined by the leaders at state level, addressed a huge Dussehra rally at Savargaon in Beed on Friday.

She was joined by Ahmednagar Member of Parliament (MP) Sujay Vikhe Patil, her younger sister and Beed MP Pritam Munde and a number of BJP legislators from central Maharashtra. In an emotional appeal to the locals, especially voters from her Wanjari community, Munde said that her entire life was for them.

Munde avoided hitting out directly at the state leaders from within BJP like she had been doing of late, but advised the state unit to avoid talking about collapse of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government every day.

“Every leader from the opposition rises up each day and gives a new date to say that our government will soon come to the power. Then the leaders from the ruling parties get up and say their combine will complete the five-year term and their government is stable. Both the sides should stop indulging in the tug-of-war over stability of the government. This should not be your motive [forming the government], people are not interested in it. They want to know what you’re doing for them. The political parties should concentrate on the welfare of the people,” she said.

Munde said her father and former deputy chief minister (CM), late Gopinath Munde, had left no stone unturned (in the early 1990s) to dislodge the then Congress government on the issue of criminalisation of politics.

The former state minister, who is locked in a cold-war with ex-CM and leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis, also took a dig at her detractors from within the party. “….main sagar se gahairi hun kitne kankar tum fekoge, tum kab tak mujhe rokoge…”she uttered in Hindi to iterate that she is determined in her resolve and it was not possible to stop her for long.

Munde is believably unhappy as she feels that party’s state leaders such as Fadnavis and Maharashtra unit chief Chandrakant Patil have been deliberately cutting her to size over the past few years. Munde believes that her defeat in the 2019 Assembly poll was “sponsored by people from within the party”.

Other OBC leaders in the party are being promoted to reduce her importance despite she being the OBC face of BJP. Ignoring the contention of her younger sister, the party leadership inducted Bhagwat Karad, another OBC face, as Union minister and it had been like rubbing salt on the wound for Mundes.

She also hit out at her cousin and social justice minister Dhananjay Munde without naming him and said the people of Beed are unhappy with his performance. Dhananjay, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, had defeated Munde in last Assembly elections and is now a minister in MVA government. She said Dhananjay has failed as a minister and his department is being by someone else. She also attacked MVA government and said that the three ruling parties – Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress – are busy making each other happy by leaving the people of the state to suffer.

“The recent package announced for the flood affected-people of central Maharashtra is inadequate. Nothing is done for the general public. Crimes against women are on the rise and women are unsafe. We expect a lot from CM Uddhav Thackeray,” she said.

She also announced not to accept garlands if Marathas are given the reservation back and not wear a feta (headgear) until OBC reservation is restored.

Dhananjay, while replying to her remarks against him and the state government, said, “People of Maharashtra know what Pankaja Munde has done when she was the minister. If she thinks the package given for the flood-affected people is inadequate, she should pursue the issue with the Centre and announce a special package from the Central government.”