I belong to BJP but BJP is not my party: Pankaja Munde

MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra minister and Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary Pankaja Munde on Thursday said that she belongs to the BJP but the party doesn't belong to her. Munde, daughter of late senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde, has maintained a low profile since her defeat in the 2019 assembly elections. She was a cabinet minister when BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was the Maharashtra chief minister between 2014 and 2019.

Speaking at an event, she said that BJP is a big party and doesn't belong to her. "I belong to the BJP. If I have a problem with my father, I will go to my brother's house," she said, referring to the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) led by Mahadeo Jankar.

Jankar, a close associate of Gopinath Munde, said, "Our community will not benefit due to my sister's party as the remote control will be with someone else." Over the past few years, there have been speculations that Munde has been sidelined by the state BJP. After the first expansion of the Eknath Shinde-Fadnavis cabinet in August 2022, she had said she might not have been "qualified enough" to get a berth.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said in January that some people were trying to create a rift between the party and Munde.

In the last state polls, she lost to her estranged cousin and Nationalist Congress Party leader Dhananjay Munde on her home turf Parli.