Pankaja, Khadse skip BJP’s OBC meeting in Mumbai

Days after disgruntled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde voiced their internal dissent and uneasiness against the party leadership,

Days after disgruntled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde voiced their internal dissent and uneasiness against the party leadership, the two leaders skipped a meeting of the party’s Other Backward Classes (OBC) Morcha in the city on Saturday. Both Munde and Khadse are OBC leaders of the party. The BJP, however, downplayed their absence and said since it was a “technical” meeting and hence, they did not come.

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The meeting of the OBC Morcha of the party was called to discuss the schemes rolled out by the Centre and the state government in the last five years, and to chalk out future plan for the party to reach out to the community.

The OBCs, a conglomeration of around 500 classes and communities, form around 53% of Maharashtra’s population.

For the BJP, the two heavyweight OBCs being miffed by the state leadership could spell trouble for the party, which has been kept out of power by three other political parties in Maharashtra.

According to Vijay (Bhai) Girkar, BJP MLC, the meeting was called to discuss the Centre and state schemes for OBCs. “It was a technical meeting to understand the Central and state schemes for the community. If there was any decision-making involved, we would have informed the media. Both Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde are senior OBC leaders, but they could not come as it was an organisational and technical meeting,” Girkar said.

Munde and Khadse had been invited for the meeting.