Mumbai: After the Fadnavis government failed to prove majority on the floor of Assembly, the BJP is struggling to keep its flock together. There is a growing resentment among party loyalists of being neglected during and after the recent assembly elections.
Pankaja Munde, former minister and the daughter of party veteran, late Gopinath Munde, gave signals of being upset after which senior leaders have reached out to her.
State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil has scoffed at reports of Munde joining the Shiv Sena, while Fadnavis held a telephonic conversation with her making it clear she is much valued in party.
There are a few others too who are upset, like the former revenue minister and senior BJP leader, Eknath Khadse, who was denied a ticket in the election, from his traditional bastion, Muktainagar in Jalgaon district.
He has made a fresh appeal to the party leadership to take disciplinary action against those who indulged in anti-party activities during the assembly election.
His complaint is, despite repeated pleas, the party leadership has not yet initiated action against the rebels and insiders who helped defeat the official nominees.
Khadse told the FPJ, ‘’Our party has to take stern action against the insiders who are responsible for the defeat of Munde and my daughter Rohini. In fact few insiders and rebels were also responsible for party’s drubbing in few other constituencies.
The party leadership can no more delay in taking strong action against them.’’ He however, said he had no plans to quit BJP. Khadse informed he has worked for over four decades to build their party and consolidate it in north Maharashtra and the rest of the state.
However, a BJP legislator from Vidarbha said, leaders including Khadse, Vinod Tawde, Raj Purohit, Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Prakash Mehta will have to be given respect especially when BJP is no more in the government.