After denying her any responsible position in its State working committee, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil on Friday claimed that former Minister and disgruntled party leader Pankaja Munde would be vested with “a big responsibility” in the party’s central working committee.
Two months after she was denied party nomination to contest the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, Pankaja failed to make it to the list of 30 State party office bearers announced by Patil.
The list of state party office bearers comprised 12 vice presidents, six general secretaries, a treasurer and 12 secretaries.
Apart from nominating 30 State party office bearers, the State BJP president named 68 members of the party working committee and 139 others as invitee-members of the State working committee.
Pankaja and other disgruntled party leaders like Eknath Khadse, Prakash Mehta and Vinod Tawade have been named as members in the special-invitee members of the State Working committee.
Though the names of the state party bigwigs like Nitin Gadkari, Devendra Fadnavis, Piyush Goyal and Prakash Javdekar also figure in the list of 58 special invitee-members of the state party working members, Pankaja and three other disgruntled leaders will have little or no say in the state party’s affairs in the State.
Asked about Pankaja having been denied a responsible post in the State party set up, Patil said: “Pankajatai will get an important position in the Central party set-up and she will be a member of the party’s state core committee”.
Given that Pankaja has been consistently sidelined in the state party set up and no effort has been made to rehabilitate her, there were not many takers for Patil’s claim in the state party set up.
It may be recalled that Pankaja had created a stir in the BJP in December last year ahead of her late father Gopinath Munde’s 70th birth anniversary by joining hands with Khadse, announcing her resignation from the party’s core group and daring the party leadership to sack her from the party.
Even Khadse has also made no bones about the manner in which he has been sidelined in the party On December 2 last year, after meeting BJP leader Pankaja Munde, Khadse had made a shocking allegation after meeting her that Pankaja and his daughter Rohini Khadse in the recent State Assembly polls were defeated due to a conspiracy hatched by some party leaders.
In an apparent effort to smooth the ruffled feathers of Pankaja, the party has appointed her MP-sister Preetam Munde as the state party’s vice president, while it has nominated Khadse’s daughter-in-law and MP Raksha as the party's secretary.