Pankaja Munde's political career out of doldrums as BJP offers candidacy for legislative council

Pankaja Munde

After her narrow defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, Pankaja Munde's political career seemed to be in the doldrums. However, the recent list of BJP candidates for the legislative council elections has come as a savior for her. The BJP has announced the names of five candidates for the elections to be held later this month, and Munde's name tops the list.

The daughter of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, Pankaja had aspired to become the chief minister of Maharashtra after winning the Parli assembly seat for the second time in 2014. She had even made a public statement about her ambition. However, the BJP leadership chose Devendra Fadnavis for the job, disappointing her. Since then, her relationship with Fadnavis had never been cordial.

Munde's decline in state politics began with her defeat in the 2019 assembly polls. She was defeated by her cousin, Dhananjay Munde, an NCP candidate and a friend of Fadnavis. Supporters of Munde suspected that Fadnavis had orchestrated her defeat, seeing her as a competitor. Munde received another blow when she was shunted out of Maharashtra and appointed as the National Secretary of the BJP, a move seen as an attempt to keep her away from state politics.

Munde often expressed her displeasure with the party leaders in Maharashtra through her gestures on social media. There were speculations that she would launch her own organization with members of the OBC community.

During the Maratha agitation for reservations in jobs and education, when the Eknath Shinde government was trying to placate the agitators, Munde made a statement that the reservation should be given to Marathas outside the OBC quota. Her statement added fuel to the fire, and she was asked to be cautious on the issue.

Munde got a chance to restore herself in politics when her name was announced as a candidate from Beed in the recently held Lok Sabha elections.

However, caste politics influenced the polls, and OBC leader Munde was defeated by NCP (SP) candidate Bajrang Sonawane by a margin of 6553 votes. In the political corridors it was discussed whether Munde's political career has come to an end, but her candidacy to Vidhan Parishad and high chances to win considering BJP's numerical strength in the lower house has revived her career.