BRISTLING at the BJP since long, over what she sees as slights towards her, and often intemperate in her remarks, national secretary Pankaja Munde stunned the party on Tuesday by going one step further. Addressing a public meeting at Ambejogai in district Beed, to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's September 17 birthday, she said, "If I live in the heart and mind of people, nobody can finish me politically. PM Narendra Modi wants to end dynasty rule prevalent in the Congress. Even I come from a political family. But if I live in people's minds, even Modi cannot finish my political career." The eldest of three daughters of Gopinath Munde, the popular senior BJP leader who died in a car accident in Delhi, Pankaja has often aspired for a bigger role in the party than she has been accorded. She stepped into electoral politics during Munde's time, contesting and winning from Parli Assembly constituency in Beed in 2009. That was when Munde moved to the Lok Sabha, passing on his political legacy in Maharashtra – where he also served as Deputy CM for a while – to Pankaja. With their vote bank among the sizeable Vanjara community, with presence in Marathwada, parts of North and Western Maharashtra, and with her good oratorical skills, Pankaja had soon made a mark. Political strategists in the BJP talked of her emerging as “the OBC leader in the BJP". In 2014, after she was re-elected from Parli, Pankaja was inducted into the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government that came to power. She held the important portfolios of Rural Development and Women and Child Welfare in the Cabinet led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. However, it was around then that her troubles started, with her tenure marked by Opposition accusations of a chikki scam. Norms were allegedly violated while issuing tenders for the purchase of chikki (a sweet made of jaggery and groundnut) under the Integrated Child Development programme of her Women and Child Welfare Ministry. Fadnavis backed her, and the Anti-Corruption Bureau gave her a clean chit, but she didn't win any friends when the controversy saw her lash out with remarks directed at own party members, on a routine basis. Pankaja's troubles compounded when in 2019, she lost the Assembly polls from Parli by a huge margin. Worse, it was to her cousin Dhananjay Munde, who had long coveted the seat and crossed over to the NCP when the BJP wouldn't give him the constituency. Again, Pankaja blamed the state BJP leadership for her defeat. In 2020, the BJP politically rehabilitated her as national secretary and made her co-incharge of Madhya Pradesh. However, far from mollified, Pankaja kept speaking out, making her desire to return to state politics evident. She vied for a seat in the Legislative Council and didn't get one, and in another snub, sister Pritam Munde Khade, who is an MP, didn't get a berth when PM Modi carried out a Cabinet reshuffle in 2021. The sisters saw a message in the induction instead of Bhagwat Karad as Union Minister of State, Finance. Karad hails from Aurangabad in Marathwada region, and hence considered Pankaja's direct rival in the region. Pankaja's followers received the news with a three-day protest, with several local leaders resigning, before she stepped in, asking her followers to calm down. BJP leaders denied at the time that there was any bid to clip Pankaja's wings by favouring Karad for a Union berth. At the time too, she dared the party to take action against her. “We have built this house (the BJP). Why should we leave? We will see what to do when the roof collapses,” she said, adding that she was waiting for the appropriate time. In another remark, seen as directed at Fadnavis, she said: “My leaders are PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda.” A few months ago, when Vinod Tawde was elevated from the post of national secretary to national general secretary, Pankaja said at a public gathering: "I am not used to begging for any post. I have been taught to serve people, and not to stretch my hands, asking for a post." Lately, after the BJP returned to power in Maharashtra in coalition with the Eknath Shinde Sena, Pankaja's supporters have been pitching for a Cabinet berth for her in the state. Insiders in the BJP say that some senior leaders have tried lobbying on her behalf. “They took up the issue with central leaders, asking them to nominate her to the Legislative Council and make her a minister in the Shinde-Fadnavis government. But they were asked to mind their own business," a BJP leader said. Another leader claimed that the central leadership has sent a clear message: "Pankaja should focus on the assignment given to her as national secretary and strengthen her organisational base in home pitch Parli." The Opposition has been sending feelers, meanwhile, realising the embarrassment for the BJP if Pankaja crosses over. While the Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena has repeatedly asked her to join them, senior NCP leader and MP Supriya Sule recently said, "If someone in my party has made an offer to Pankaja to join us, I support it." The BJP, however, is not unduly worried, as of now. Party leaders said Pankaja keeps making such off-the-cuff remarks, and these should be taken only at face value. "When she talks to her supporters, she is at times unmindful of the Laxman Rekha,” a leader said.
