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Journalism of Courage
Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde resigned from all organizational posts, upset over appointment of Madhu Chavan as the head of Mumbai unit of the party and alleged the party was not functioning democratically.
“I resigned from all party posts because the party is not functioning democratically. I will talk about it after the budget session of the state legislature,” Munde told reporters in Aurangabad.
The BJP leader, often called the ‘face of BJP’ in Maharashtra, said he would tour different districts of the state as an ordinary worker.
Munde is understood to have sent his resignation to party chief Rajnath Singh.
Highly placed party sources told PTI that Munde was against the appointment of Chavan, who is considered close to state BJP chief and Munde’s critic Nitin Gadkari, as the city unit chief by the BJP central leadership.
“It was at Munde’s demand that a committee comprising senior party leaders Ram Naik, Ved Prakash Goyal and Bal Apte was set up to take a decision on who should succeed current incumbent Prakash Mehta as the city unit chief.
The committee held consultations with about 70 to 80 senior leaders, office-bearers and workers from the city and decided to appoint Madhu Chavan, sources said.
The name was unacceptable to Munde and hence the appointment did not take place for nearly a year.
Gadkari had informed the central leadership about the reasons for delay in appointment of Chavan as the city chief and discussed the issue with Rajnath Singh and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani.
Yesterday, Advani was in Mumbai and gave the go-ahead for Chavan’s appointment, sources said.
