Mumbai: Cousins turned opponents, Munde family has seen it all since the last few years. After the death of Gopinath Munde, the dynamic leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in June 2014, the relations between his daughter Pankaja Munde, now the minister of women and child welfare and her cousin Dhananjay Munde, leader of opposition in the council form Nationalist Congress Party, have turned sour.
Both have been cynosure of controversy on several occasions and do not miss an opportunity to taunt each other. Now, the controversy is over punctuality. In fact, the late Gopinath Munde carried the label of being a ‘late latif’ and now his nephew Dhananjay, too seems to have earned it.
On Sunday, the warring cousins, Pankaja and Dhananjay were invited to attend the event commemorating the 75th birth anniversary of Abasaheb Waghamare at Parli, their home town in Beed district. Pankaja was punctual while Dhananjay was late.
Not wanting to spare this opportunity, Pankaja passed a snide remark, “I am always punctual and reached before time, although the event started late. My apologies. However, it is important for me to attend another event and express my apologies”, said Pankaja.
She hitned that Dhananjay may be a ‘late latif’ for the next elections too. In a bitter reply, Dhananjay said, for the first time he saw a punctual student come and leave early. “Only a marksheet decides which student is good or bad. But I can confidently say I stand by the people in their hour of need,” said Dhananjay.
He reminded his cousin Pankaja, “In politics, the Opposition speaks first and ruling party leaders have to give a reply. This is the general practice. But, here in Parli, we saw the reverse. It seems, she may be aware of the outcome of her political future.”
