Sidelined within the BJP, high-profile politician and former minister Pankaja Munde on Tuesday staged a show of strength in Mumbai asserting that she was just avoiding a “dharma-yuddha” and scotched rumours of her leaving the saffron party.
Pankaja (41) is the daughter of late Gopinath Munde and niece of late Pramod Mahajan.
“I do not run after the chair…I will continue to work for people as my father and our leader Gopinath Munde told us…he guided us, he taught us not to run to become mantris and santris but work for people,” said Pankaja, a veteran politician from the Marathwada region of the state.
Once a contender for the Chief Minister’s post, Pankaja lost the 2019 Vidhan Sabha to her estranged cousin Dhananjay Munde of NCP – the latter seen close to Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis.
Pankaja, currently national secretary of the party, was expecting that her sister and Beed MP Dr Pritam Munde would be accommodated in the Cabinet reshuffle that BJP-led NDA government undertook last week.
After this, several of her supporters in the Marathwada region sent in their resignations, which she rejected. “I do not believe in pressure politics,” she said.
"My leaders are Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda," she said.
"I will keep trying to avoid the 'dharma-yuddha' till the maximum extent possible....the day I feel 'Ram' is not here...I will rethink...," she said amid thunderous applause outside her Worli residence in Mumbai.
Published 13 July 2021, 11:28 IST