Mumbai: Refuting talks of her becoming a member of one other celebration, Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) nationwide secretary Pankaja Munde Friday asserted that if there are any questions on why she is neglected for alternatives, they need to be directed on the celebration.
“Each time there may be an appointment of somebody and my title doesn’t come up, there’s a dialogue that I’m disgruntled. This dialogue is just not due to me. So as an alternative of asking me about it, the celebration ought to discuss it, and never me. When the celebration feels I’m eligible, it’ll give me an opportunity,” Munde mentioned at a press convention at her residence.
Friday’s press convention was prompted by information experiences of Munde being in talks to hitch the Congress.
Since 2019, after Munde misplaced to cousin and NCP chief Dhananjay Munde in the Maharashtra election, there have been talks of a rising rift between Munde — a former MLA from Parli in Beed district — and the BJP management, particularly on the state degree.
In 2013, Dhananjay had walked out of the BJP after it was clear that his uncle and late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde supposed to cross on his political legacy to his daughters — Pritam and Pankaja. Dhananjay then joined the NCP. Pritam is the BJP MP from Beed.
On Sunday, when the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction joined the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis authorities, Dhananjay turned a cupboard minister.
On Friday, Munde mentioned she intends to take a two-month trip from “this model of politics” and requested media individuals to not method her for that length.
“I wish to take a break and assume for one or two months the place the nation’s politics is headed. We want to consider what is occurring to folks. I’m saying two months break so that you simply don’t include a microphone to me and ask me for a response on what somebody has mentioned,” the previous Maharashtra minister mentioned.
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‘Why are questions being raised on my ethics?’
Since 2019, there have been talks on whether or not the BJP would accommodate her as an MLC within the state legislature.
The celebration had requested her to maintain her nomination papers prepared for the MLC elections on two events, however was ultimately not given the go forward, she mentioned.
“I’ve obeyed each resolution of the celebration. Then, why are questions being raised on my ethics? My nature is such that I’m clear and I like straight speak. I’ve all the time taken a transparent stand in politics,” Munde mentioned, including if she have been to take any motion it might be ‘danke ki chot par‘ (to inform everybody brazenly about it).
In an oblique reference to the splits within the Shiv Sena and the NCP, Munde mentioned that whereas Maharashtra is seeing completely different political experiments, celebration staff like her are working to make sure that the BJP’s ideology of Deendayal Upadhyay and Atal Bihari Vajpayee is preserved.
Munde mentioned, earlier this week, she additionally met her cousin Dhananjay at her residence when he came visiting her and congratulated him for being appointed a cupboard minister.
On Friday morning, Dhananjay tweeted footage and a video of Pankaja Munde presenting him with a bouquet, feeding him sweets and placing a teeka (vermillion) on his brow.
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Missed by celebration
The primary signal of Munde’s unease inside the BJP was in 2016 when the then CM Devendra Fadnavis took away the portfolio of water conservation portfolio below which his flagship venture Jal Yukta Shivar was constituted.
Since 2019, Munde has usually made statements indicating her disillusionment with the celebration.
After she misplaced the 2019 state polls, Munde had mentioned that the media retains discussing talks of her quitting the BJP. In a veiled taunt at Fadnavis, she had mentioned that it was being “intentionally performed by some folks” to make sure that she doesn’t get any celebration publish.
Munde’s supposed disenchantment with the celebration has usually been in talks each time she or her sister have been neglected for a place — through the MLC elections in 2020 and 2022 when she didn’t get a nomination, or through the cupboard growth in 2021, when the BJP management picked Bhagwat Karad as a junior minister and OBC face over Pritam.
The Munde sisters belong to the OBC’s Vanjari group with their father being an icon for the group in Maharashtra.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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