While Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary Pankaja Munde has clarified that she is not quitting the party over the recent changes in the Maharashtra government, she has also criticised her colleagues for not speaking up over the recent developments.
Pankaja Munde also said that she is planning to take a break for “one or two months” as she was anguished at her integrity being questioned time and again.
In a swipe at her own party, the former Parli MLA said her colleagues worked hard to highlight the work done by PM Modi in the past nine years but could not muster courage to speak up on the recent developments in the states – a reference to NCP MLAs joining the Maharashtra government.
The former state minister and daughter of party stalwart late Gopinath Munde said she wanted the BJP’s ideology of Deendayal Upadhyaya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee to remain as she had grown up on that sentiment.
She also said that only time will tell if she was treated unfairly.
Addressing a press conference, Pankaja Munde said post her defeat in the 2019 Assembly polls from Parli, her name came up for nomination to the Rajya Sabha and two times for the Maharashtra Legislative Council but she was asked to not go ahead at the last moment.
“I have never commented on this in public and have obeyed the party directive. i have never worked against the party’s interest. If the BJP doesn’t think where politics is going…nobody is interested in what people think, I am going to introspect,” she said.
Elaborating on her planned “break”, Pankaja Munde said it was not from the work but from media. “Not from my work but from you [media],” she said. She also rejected the reports that she met Congress leaders Rahul and Sonia Gandhi.
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Updated: 07 Jul 2023, 06:09 PM IST