Form of words:
Mumbai: In the last two years, there has been a rift between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pankaja Munde, daughter of the late Gopinath Munde, and the party leadership, especially at the state level.
On Friday, the spark may once again fly as Munde addressed his first Dussehra rally since the pandemic at Bhagwangarh in his home district of Beed.
Munde posted a video message on his Facebook page on Thursday morning, requesting his followers to follow Covid protocols during the rally. At the end of the 3.46-minute message, she cryptically added: “I have a lot to say to you. A lot has accumulated in my mind in two years. I want to listen to you and also want to say a few things.
Munde further suggested that she has faced many challenges in the last two years and wants to take her supporters into confidence in the rally which she tied with her common “pride and self-respect”.
“It (rally) is an energy, it is a force. You are coming there in large numbers. We have seen many ups and downs in the last two years. There were a lot of challenges…successes and failures. And from here in which direction should we take us and how should we continue the journey in future. This will be the tone of my speech,” Munde further said in his message.
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old guard faces the heat
Ever since former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis became the face of BJP in Maharashtra, there has been silence. heartburn Party sources said Fadnavis systematically cut his wings inside the old guard. Munde, a former minister in the then Fadnavis cabinet, was one of the receiving end.
Last year, he addressed his father’s traditional Dussehra rally online, where he neither mentioned Fadnavis nor BJP state president Chandrakant Patil. shaved, instead, is appreciated Shiv Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis’s aide turned rival, for announcing a relief package for the state’s flood-hit farmers.
The annual Dussehra rally in Bhagwangarh was a tradition started by senior Munde, which was taken over by Pankaja Munde in 2014 after the death of her father. Like Rally, he also carried on his father’s legacy and his mass followers within the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Vanjari community.
The reason for Munde’s displeasure
NS early signal Munde’s disquiet within the Maharashtra BJP under Fadnavis was seen in 2016, when he took away the water conservation department, under which his flagship Jal Yukta Shivar had been formed. his allegation. Munde had tweeted that she would not attend a global water summit from now on as she no longer has the portfolio to which Fadnavis replied that she should attend it as a representative of the government.
Since the end of 2019, Munde’s anger has often boiled over, but never boils down to rebellion.
In December 2019, when Munde lost his constituency to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the state elections and the BJP lost the race to form the government to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), he led an approx. open rebellion Against Fadnavis – but without naming him.
“The media debates and discusses about my leaving the party or the increasing pressure on the party leadership. This is being done deliberately by some people to ensure that I do not get any particular party post.”
In May 2020, the old times of the BJP like Munde and Vinod Tawde, Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Eknath Khadse (now with the NCP) were once again. hanged When all of them were ignored for the membership of the State Legislative Council. The party decided to nominate relatively fresh faces who are believed to be Fadnavis supporters.
The party eventually pacified Munde and Tawde Appointment He has been appointed as the National Secretary in September 2020.
In July this year, the rift between Munde and the BJP surfaced again, when she was hoping to induct her sister, Lok Sabha MP Pritam Munde, in the Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet. Instead, from Maharashtra, the BJP leadership raised The Munde family was ignored with Narayan Rane as cabinet minister and Bharti Pawar, Kapil Patil and Bhagwat Karad as junior ministers.
The decision to elect Karad, a Rajya Sabha MP, was taken especially because of his belonging to the Vanjari community of OBCs, which are largely represented by the Munde clan within the BJP. Neither Pritam nor Pankaja made any public statements or tweets congratulating their BJP colleagues for their place in the Union Cabinet, triggering a discussion about their displeasure.
A large number of party workers supporting Munde resigned from their official posts in protest, while Munde said She will always try to escape”Religious war: With the Kauravas” and emphasized that it could not be written yet.
(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)
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