POST THE Lok Sabha election setback, the BJP is set to give Pankaja Munde what she has long desired – a stake in state politics. Having failed to win a single seat in the Marathwada region, the party is planning to bring the OBC leader to the House via the Legislative Council, followed by a ministerial post, sources said.
The eldest of three daughters of the late Gopinath Munde, the BJP’s most prominent OBC face in Maharashtra once, Pankaja has never hidden her displeasure at her “sidelining” in the state unit since the rise of Devendra Fadnavis. Having given her a role in the party national organization, the BJP this time gave Pankaja a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls only after the realization sank in of the ground beneath it slipping, both on account of the Maratha quota protests and the counter-OBC mobilization. .
The ticket from Beed to Pankaja was at the cost of her sister Pritam, a two-term MP from the constituency. While Pankaja lost, by a narrow 6,000 votes, the party is now set to ensure an MLC win for her, said sources.
A highly placed source in the BJP said, “The state core committee leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Fadnavis, have recommended the candidature of Pankaja Munde for MLC and Cabinet berth in the Eknath Shinde-led coalition government. The central leadership has also given its consent.”
Reduced to nine Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, from 23 that it won in 2019, the BJP realizes the need to rethink its strategy ahead of the Assembly elections which are just months away. Crucial to its fortunes remains projecting a strong face that can consolidate its traditional vote base among the OBCs. Not only does Pankaja fill that gap, the Mundes are additionally Vanjari (OBC) faces from Marathwada, the hotbed of the Maratha quota stir.
The BJP has an OBC face in its state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who is a Teli from Vidarbha. But empowering an OBC face in Marathwada is expected to pay off more dividends, apart from the clout that the Munde name still commands.
The BJP this time did not win a single one of Marathwada’s eight Lok Sabha seats, comprising 46 Assembly segments.
A senior BJP functionary said the party had two options. “First was to nominate Panjaka for a Rajya Sabha seat from the state quota, to be followed by her induction in the Union Cabinet led by Narendra Modi. The second option was to make her MLC and a Cabinet minister in the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra.”
With the Assembly polls the most pressing agenda, it was felt that Pankaja could be used more fruitfully in state politics.
In 2019, Pankaja had contested the Assembly elections from Parli seat in Beed, but lost to her cousin and NCP candidate Dhananjay Munde. In 2020, she was appointed national secretary and made co-incharge of Madhya Pradesh, even as her aides and followers openly talked about how she should have continued working in Maharashtra politics. Pankaja too talked about preferring to work in Maharashtra.
In 2023, Dhananjay was inducted as a minister, with the crucial Agriculture portfolio, in the Mahayuti government, after he sided with Ajit Pawar in the NCP split. This further strengthened apprehensions among Pankaja’s supporters that the state BJP was determined to sideline her.
MLC elections for 11 seats in Maharashtra are to take place on July 12. The BJP hopes to win five seats on its strength, plus four more with the help of allies Shiv Sena (Shinde) and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction). The Congress could get one seat, and the NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) could pool in their numbers to win another for the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition.
Sources said that the Shinde Cabinet will go in for an expansion after the MLC polls. At present, the Maharashtra government has 29 ministers, including the CM and the two Deputy CMs (Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar). With the total permissible strength for the Council of Ministers in Maharashtra 43, that leaves 14 vacant berths.