‘We have the key to the lock of development’

Mungantiwar was in the race for the CM post with Tawde and Pankaja Munde in 2014. Five years down the line, he faces one of his biggest challenges in his home district.

Ballarpur MLA and state Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar. Express

When party tickets were denied to four prominent BJP faces (Vinod Tawde, Prakash Mehta, Raj Purohit and Chandrashekhar Bawankule), there was hush-hush talk about Maharashtra Finance Minister and Ballarpur MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar, too, in the same vein. Mungantiwar was in the race for the CM post with Tawde and Pankaja Munde in 2014. Five years down the line, he faces one of his biggest challenges in his home district — keep all five seats won in 2014 to offset the loss of prestige due to the defeat of party nominee, former Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. In an interview to Vivek Deshpande, he speaks on a host of issues.

BJP won 44 out of 62 Vidarbha seats in the 2014 Assembly elections. What’s the scenario this time?

We will win more seats this time. The reason is, Congress and NCP are low on morale. They also know they are not coming to power. If anybody claims Congress will win, it’s taken as a joke. After all, people vote for development. So, they vote for the party in power at the Centre and state. We have the key to the lock of development.

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Hansraj Ahir lost in Chandrapur in the Lok Sabha poll this year and the constituency elected the only Congress candidate from the state. He had the biggest setback in your Ballarpur Assembly segment. Now BJP seems to be on a sticky wicket in Chandrapur and Rajura. Why?

That’s your perception. We will win both seats. Our surveys show that. In Odisha, both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections were held simultaneously. People voted differently in the two elections. So, here, too, we will surely won all the seats.

If that logic is applied to Maharashtra…

It doesn’t apply here since we have read the entire syllabus of the exam, worked hard and have done beautiful management. And the media itself is showing we are winning more than 200 seats this time. Our own estimate is 220-plus.

Why are you telling people in Chandrapur to look at you and vote for your candidate Nana Shamkule? Is he not capable of winning on his own?

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No, no. There is always a chain of leadership in politics. Here, they have me, in the state they have (Devendra) Fadnavis and at the Centre there is (Narendra) Modi.

When tickets were denied to four sitting party MLAs this time, why was your name, too, was being take as another possible casualty?

Those were rumours. I was myself in the ticket distribution committee. Some people unnecessarily like to take big names.

They say it was because you are close to Nitin Gadkari.

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There is nothing like being close to Gadkari in BJP. …there is proximity (of others) to him. When he will quit the party, there will be no one with him. If tomorrow Amit (Shah) will go out of the party, there will be no one with him. When Narendra Modi will quit the party, not a single BJP worker will go with him. BJP is a party that believes in its organisational strength. Bawankule was as much the CM’s man as he was of Gadkari.

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maharashtra elections

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