Mumbai:
Delivering series of body blows to the state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a sulking Pankaja Munde announced that she wanted the party to relieve her from her responsibilities that of the party’s core committee member. Pouring her heart out at the mammoth rally organised to mark the 70th birth anniversary of her late father Gopinath Munde at Parli Vaijanath on Thursday, she remarked “I will not quit the party. Let the party decide whether it wants to let me go away. From now on I have no post, no responsibility. Whatever needs to be done will be done in the future. The BJP leadership needs to introspect on all this.”
Stating that her late father had taught them self-respect, she said that henceforth would not spread arms for help. Munde announced that from now on she had no post in the party and would plunge herself more vigorously in serving the people of Marathwada. She further announced that she would reopen the office of her late father in Mumbai on January 26 and serve the people of Marathwada. In order to draw the attention of those in power to the water woes and farmers plight in Marathwada, Pankaja Munde announced that she would stage a hunger strike at Aurangabad on January 27.
Like Khadse, she too vented her anger on former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Pankaja Munde stated that she did not pay much attention to her own election and was more busy in trying to ensure Fadnavis was re-elected as the chief minister. However, in her absence systematic efforts were made to ensure that she lost the assembly election. She added that even when she was in the ministry, there were people deployed to speak against her. She wanted to know why someone in the party was so anxious wanting her to quit the party.
In a rather sarcastic tone aimed at the party leadership she said “I have no expectations from you, so then how to be unhappy and on whom to be unhappy. After my one post on Facebook on December 1, find out who planted stories that I was on the verge of quitting the party. Somebody is having the feeling that Pankaja Munde is reduced to being a zero. The party is not anybody’s property, even I can claim it to be that of my late father. Neither can anybody claim exclusive right over RSS ideology and access to Sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat.”
Pankaja Munde remarked that deliberately, purposely stories about her aspiring to be the chief minister were circulated. That she had claimed that she was the chief minister in the minds of the people. In an counter-offensive she wanted to know as to what was wrong in even aspiring to be the chief minister. After having posted the post on her Facebook wall on December 1 about todays program, she urged the media to find out who planted the story that she was about to leave the party? She denied that she was doing all this because she wanted some post or rehabilitated after her recent assembly election defeat.
