After being sidelined for almost five years, Pankaja Munde got a surprise ticket from the BJP to contest her ‘family seat’ of Beed in Marathwada. “It gives mixed feelings and is a challenge,” she said.
The seat, after the death of her father Gopinath Munde, was being represented by her sister Dr Pritam Munde. It is to be seen how Pritam is accommodated. The Munde sisters are the nieces of late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan and cousins of Rahul Mahajan and Poonam Mahajan who is an MP from Mumbai. The Mundes hail from the Vanjari community.
The senior Munde was among those responsible for the growth of BJP in Maharashtra and was the deputy chief minister and home minister between 1995-99, when he broke the back of the Mumbai mafia. He was also appointed the rural development minister in the Modi government, but died in a road accident a few days later.
Pankaja successfully fought assembly polls from Parli in 2009 and 2014 and was the rural development minister in the Fadnavis government from 2014–19.
In the 2019 polls, she was defeated by her cousin Dhananjay Munde of NCP, who is close to Ajit Pawar. After five years, she expects to make a comeback, but possibly in a national-level role.
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Published 18 April 2024, 15:50 IST