Won’t leave field until 2024 polls as I have to ensure justice for my supporters: Pankaja Munde

“I have decided not to leave the battlefield till the 2024 polls. I will ensure justice to my supporters,” she added.

Pankaja, who is the eldest daughter of the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, was cautious not to attack any central or state leader of the party directly. “Today, I have nothing to offer to my supporters. I am a nobody. Yet people have come in large numbers braving the heat and sun. They are sitting for hours to listen to my speech out of affection, which is unexplainable. I will never be able to repay the reverence shown towards me,” the BJP national secretary said.

“When my sugar mill was raided by central agencies, within two days my supporters raised Rs 11 crore. Their unwavering affection is my treasure,” she added.

“Unfortunately,” she continued, “I cannot do politics without principle. I am not someone who will thrive on others’ work and resources. I would rather go to sugarcane and cotton fields and work as a daily-wage labourer. But I will never compromise on my principles in politics.”

Pankaja also recited verses from a poem, “Na Jane Mujhe Kaise Parkha Hain Mere Uparwale Ne, Imtihan Leta Hain Magar Harne Nahi Deta…” (I don’t know how the almighty has chosen me…he subjects me to thought tests but ensures I am not defeated.)

“Those doing anti-farmer politics will be defeated in the next elections. Are farmers happy? Do farmers get crop insurance? Do farm labourers get daily wages? Is there enough work in agriculture fields? Do sugarcane labourers get increased wages?”

To all the questions, the crowd spontaneously responded with a no.

In a veiled attack on the BJP-led state government, Pankaja said, “I constructed Gopinath Gad within three months. But the state government has done nothing for the Gopinath Munde memorial project. Nor do I expect them to do anything.”

Though she is a national secretary of the BJP, Pankaja’s supporters believe the former minister is being sidelined in the party.

In the 2019 Assembly elections she lost the Parli constituency in Beed district to her cousin, Dhananjay Munde of the NCP. Her younger sister, Pritam Munde Khade, is two-term Lok Sabha member representing Beed.