Not obsessed with MVA govt; BJP has lot to do as only major oppn party in Maha: Pankaja Munde

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The BJP is not obsessed with the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra and as the only major opposition party in the state, it has much to do for the people, senior leader Pankaja Munde said.

Besides being one of the most prominent leaders of the BJP in Maharashtra, she is also the party’s national secretary.

Munde, who was cabinet minister in the BJP-led alliance government in Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019, said the party has in itself to act as a strong, active and constructive opposition in the state.

The MVA government is an alliance of the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP.

“It is the government of convenience bound by self-interest and not people welfare… Rather than worrying about the fate of this (MVA) government, we (BJP) are focusing on our current role that is of opposition,” she said.

“The BJP is the only major opposition party in Maharashtra and we have so much to gain and do for the people,” Munde said, adding that the BJP is not obsessed with the fall of this government.

Munde said as the only major opposition party, the BJP can further consolidate its position and become the central point of the state’s politics.

“It is in BJP workers to play a constructive and active role of an opposition party. We should raise the issues which matter to the people rather than simply sitting and waiting for this government to fall ,” she told PTI in an interview.

Responding to questions on the caste-based census, Munde said she is in full support of this idea and emphasised that her party is also not averse to it.

“Rather than causing problems, caste-based census may resolve many problems. When we are doing census for so many things, then why not caste,” Munde said.

She added that it would be incorrect to say that the BJP is against such a census.

Asked about reports of her having differences with state leaders, Munde rubbished such reports, saying the BJP is a democratic party and where all work as a team.

Talking about her father late Gopinath Munde, who was a former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and a Union minister, Munde said she still misses him and his guidance still helps her in her politics.

During Pankaja Munde’s tenure as rural development minister of Maharashtra, the state was awarded for effective implementation of various rural development welfare schemes.

She became MLA for the first time in 2009, and thereafter, she became the state president of the BJP’s youth wing.

Ahead of the 2014 assembly elections in which the BJP emerged as the single largest party, she had carried out a “Punha Sangharsh Yatra”.

The yatra was along the lines of a “Sangharsh Yatra” undertaken by her father in 1995 after which the Shiv Sena-BJP came to power in the state.