Pankaja Gopinath Munde of BJP and Dhananjay Munde of NCP.
Credit: DH File Photo
Mumbai: The Munde family has got two berths in the new Maha Yuti-NDA government headed by Devendra Fadnavis in Maharashtra.
While Pankaja Munde is BJP MLC, Dhananjay Munde represents Parli in Beed district.
Pankaja (45) is daughter of late BJP stalwart and former Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde and niece of late BJP leader and former union minister Pramod Mahajan.
Dhananjay (49) is son of late Pandit Anna Munde, the brother of late Gopinath Munde.
Dhananjay is considered close to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Ajit Pawar.
Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha polls, the Munde cousins patched up.
While Pankaja was the Rural Development Minister in the Fadnavis government between 2014-19, Dhananjay was a the Social Justice and Special Assistance Minister in then Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government and the Agriculture Minister in the Eknath Shinde-led Maha Yuti government.
In the 2019 polls, Dhananjay had defeated Pankaja from Parli after which the latter was sidelined in the state politics. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pankaja was fielded instead of her sister Dr Pritam Munde, however, she lost the polls. Later, she was accommodated as an MLC.