News Analysis India

Tag: Gopinath Munde

  • Late BJP leader Gopinath Munde’s daughters air different views of party 

    Express News Service

    The Munde sisters are airing different views about their official party, BJP. After BJP Lok Sabha MP Pritam Munde extended her support to the wrestlers protesting against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, former Maharashtra minister and National Secretary of BJP Pankaja Munde on Thursday said that while she is a member of the BJP, the party does not belong to her. 

    Pankaja Munde, daughter of late senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde expressed displeasure that she was side-lined in BJP. She has maintained a low profile since her defeat in the 2019 assembly elections. Munde also served as a cabinet minister during the tenure of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from 2014 to 2019. 

    Speaking at an event, she said that BJP is a big party and doesn’t belong to her. “I belong to the BJP. If I have a problem with my father, I will go to my brother’s house,” she said, pointing out at the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) led by Mahadeo Jankar.

    Jankar, a close associate of Gopinath Munde, said, “Our community will not benefit due to my sister’s party as the remote control will be with someone else.” He further added that the BJP has ignored the Munde family for ages although they have immense support from their community. 

    NCP leader and former home minister Anil Deshmukh said that they will welcome Pankaja Munde if she and her followers decide to join the NCP.

    Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that BJP is downsizing Munde’s leadership but also mentioned that the family “has to make brave decisions if they really feel like doing something.”

    Reacting to this development, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekar Bawankule said that Munde is very much in BJP though; her statements are just being twisted by the Opposition to suit their agenda. 

    The Munde sisters are airing different views about their official party, BJP. After BJP Lok Sabha MP Pritam Munde extended her support to the wrestlers protesting against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, former Maharashtra minister and National Secretary of BJP Pankaja Munde on Thursday said that while she is a member of the BJP, the party does not belong to her. 

    Pankaja Munde, daughter of late senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde expressed displeasure that she was side-lined in BJP. She has maintained a low profile since her defeat in the 2019 assembly elections. Munde also served as a cabinet minister during the tenure of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from 2014 to 2019. 

    Speaking at an event, she said that BJP is a big party and doesn’t belong to her. “I belong to the BJP. If I have a problem with my father, I will go to my brother’s house,” she said, pointing out at the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) led by Mahadeo Jankar.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Jankar, a close associate of Gopinath Munde, said, “Our community will not benefit due to my sister’s party as the remote control will be with someone else.” He further added that the BJP has ignored the Munde family for ages although they have immense support from their community. 

    NCP leader and former home minister Anil Deshmukh said that they will welcome Pankaja Munde if she and her followers decide to join the NCP.

    Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that BJP is downsizing Munde’s leadership but also mentioned that the family “has to make brave decisions if they really feel like doing something.”

    Reacting to this development, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekar Bawankule said that Munde is very much in BJP though; her statements are just being twisted by the Opposition to suit their agenda. 

  • ‘Upset’ Pankaja Munde meets PM Modi, JP Nadda in Delhi

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI:  BJP leader Pankaja Munde met PM Narendra Modi and party chief JP Nadda on Sunday in Delhi amid reports that she was hurt by the non-inclusion of her sister in the NDA’s expanded Union Cabinet.

    Pankaja, the daughter of late BJP leader and OBC stalwart Gopinath Munde, was expecting a Cabinet berth for Pritam who is a MP from Beed district. This development comes at a time when the BJP is looking to make inroads into the OBC voters. “BJP does not want to give anything to the Munde family but don’t want her to leave too. After the report of dissatisfaction against the BJP leadership, this must be an attempt by Nadda and Modi to pacify her ahead of the local elections,” said a party insider.

    Though Pankaja has claimed she would abide by the party’s decision, several BJP leaders owing allegiance to her have resigned and others threatened mass resignations. According to her associate, there is a plan to curtail the importance of the two sisters in party.

    “Pankaja lost the state polls to her nephew because BJP leaders helped him. They do not want any major competitor against Devendra Fadnavis. She should have been rehabilitated by giving an MLC post. But it was ignored.”  The recent Cabinet expansion in which Pritam Munde was ignored shows that BJP no more wants the two sisters, the associate asserted.   

  • Bhagwat Karad’s induction in cabinet aimed at ending Pankaja Munde’s political career: Shiv Sena

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Friday alleged that the inclusion of BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Bhagwat Karad into the Union council of ministers, instead of late leader Gopinath Munde’s daughter and two-time MP Pritam Munde, was a plan to finish off the political career of her sister Pankaja Munde, a former Maharashtra minister.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday carried out a major revamp of the Union Cabinet, as part of which Karad on took charge as the new Minister of State for Finance. Karad (64), a doctor by profession from Maharashtra, is a first-time Member of Parliament (MP) from the Rajya Sabha.

    There was a speculation Pritam Munde would be included in the new council of ministers, but she failed to find any place in it. In an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Shiv Sena said, “Bhagwat Karad has been made a minister of state. This is a move aimed at finishing off the (political career) of Pankaja Munde. Karad, who grew up in the shadow of BJP leader late Gopinath Munde, was made a minister instead of (Pankaja’s sister) Pritam Munde.”

    There is room to doubt whether the move is aimed at creating a division in the Vanjara community (to which Munde and Karad belong) and to each Pankaja Munde a lesson. “Also, the induction of Bharti Pawar and Kapil Patil into the council of ministers was like rubbing salt on the wounds of BJP loyalists,” it said.

    “Both- Pawar and Patil-had recently quit the NCP to join the BJP. This is the real shock treatment,” the ruling party in Maharashtra said. Maharashtra leader Narayan Rane has also found a place in the new cabinet is a good thing.

    Even he is not originally from the BJP as he was earlier with Shiv Sena and Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said. Rane has been given the charge of the MSME ministry. He has to take steps considering the present situation of this sector.

    The country’s commerce and industry has suffered setbacks. It added that the small units are finding it tough to survive. So what measures Rane takes remains to be seen. “All eyes were set on the expansion of the Union cabinet. This has been done before the monsoon session of the Parliament begins. It has been carried out as if it is a panacea to the problems like crumbling economy, the health crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic, chaos in education sector, inflation and unemployment,” the Sena said.

    Except for Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, all other ministers are new. Most of them are originally not from the BJP or the Sangh Parivar. “The new cabinet lacks the essence of the BJP or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA),” the party said.

    This exercise has been termed as a “mega surgery”. If it was really a surgery, then the Finance Minister and the External Affairs Minister would have been the first to be dropped. The present failure on the economic and foreign policy fronts was seen never before.

    Removing senior ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ravi Shankar Prasad from the cabinet is a blow to them. “We pray that they get strength to recover from this shock,” it said. When Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ was given the education portfolio in the earlier cabinet, the entire sector was on tenterhooks.

    In the past, this department had been handled by veterans like PV Narsimha Rao, Arjun Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi. Allotting the HRD ministry to Pokhriyal was a political mistake, it said.

    Now, he has been replaced with Dharmendra Pradhan, under whose tenure as Petroleum Minister, the fuel prices skyrocketed and the petrol prices crossed Rs 100 per litre. “Now what he does in education sector remains to be seen,” the Sena said.

    The party also said that it is being alleged that with the formation of new Union Co-operation Ministry, the Centre was trying to encroach upon the state’s rights as co-operation is a state subject. “This shouldn’t happen and the federal system shouldn’t be impacted,” it said.