After Maharashtra setback, BJP re-discovers Pankaja Munde, may become minister

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 organisation, the BJP this time gave Pankaja a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls only after realisation sunk in of the ground beneath it slipping, both on account of the Maratha quota protests and the counter-OBC mobilisation.

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 realises 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 additionally are Vanjari (OBC) faces from Marathwada, the hotbed of