This Article is From Oct 06, 2014

Won't Say No to Being Chief Minister if BJP Asks: Pankaja Munde to NDTV

Parli, Maharashtra: At home in Parli in Maharashtra's Beed district, it is a busy morning for Pankaja Munde.

Farmers, local leaders and a host of supporters are waiting for her. A man in a politician's trademark attire is getting himself clicked in front of a huge photograph of late Gopinath Munde - Pankaja's father and the BJP's tallest leader in Maharashtra - until he was killed four months ago in a road accident in Delhi. Also milling around is a Narendra Modi lookalike, who has come all the way from Gujarat.

It is hard to miss the buzz around the 35-year-old MLA, seeking to be re-elected in a constituency nurtured by her father, who was all set to become the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra. And it is in this light Pankaja sees herself.

"I have never thought of portraying myself as the chief minister of Maharashtra. But after Mundesaheb, I took over and the people, of course, want me to take his place. That's the people's aspiration, what they want... because they could not see my dad there (as the chief minister). If my party asks me to be the Chief Minister, I will not say no," she says on her way to a rally.

What has perhaps prompted Pankaja to throw her hat in the ring is the fact that the BJP is the only party which has not declared a chief ministerial candidate. It hopes to come to power seeking votes in the name of the Prime Minister.

The names of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, and state leaders like Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Khadse, however, are doing the rounds.

Pitted against Pankaja is her estranged cousin Dhananjay Munde, who had severed ties with the family after differences rose between him and Gopinath Munde. Dhananjay then moved to the NCP - the party of Gopinath Munde's political archrival Sharad Pawar.

"Even sympathy for her father's death cannot get her votes. As an MLA, there is little she has done. The BJP had never projected Mundesaheb as the CM candidate. Why will they do that for his daughter?" Dhananjay asks outside his palatial mansion perched on a hill in Parli.

It is Pankaja's former ally, the Shiv Sena, which has ensured that there would no division of votes. Given the old family ties between the Thackerays and the Mundes, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has not fielded a candidate against Pankaja.

In this Munde vs Munde battle, who the winner will be is perhaps a foregone conclusion.

But can Pankaja fulfill her father Gopinath's dream and become the next chief minister of Maharashtra? There are many who feel though she has the potential, she is a political novice. But through her, the BJP can at least hope to make huge electoral gains among the backward classes.
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