Munde assays his standing in state BJP

MUMBAI: In an attempt to assess his strength in the Maharashtra BJP, Gopinath Munde held consultations with his close supporters at his Worli residence on Tuesday, even as the party bigwigs launched efforts to pacify the star BJP rebel.
Senior BJP functionaries Pandurang Phundkar, Sambhajirao Pawar and Prakash Shendge, and Shiv Sena legislator Suresh Jain met Munde.
While Munde later told media-persons that the talks were confined to the progress of the monsoon, his supporter Prakash Shendge said, “The party should give Mundesaab his due. He is our tallest leader.” Shendge was quick to add that Munde had no plans to quit the BJP.
Meanwhile, BJP president Nitin Gadkari has summoned Eknath Khadse, a clever strategist and senior partyman, to New Delhi to end the deadlock. Khadse is said to be a close lieutenant
of Munde.
Munde, who is said to be upset over being marginalized in the party, has strained ties with Gadkari. The flash-point came with the appointment of Vikas Matkari, a Gadkari loyalist, as chief of the Pune city BJP last week. The BJP parliamentary board’s latest decision to replace Phundkar, a Munde acolyte, with Vinod Tawde as leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council has deepened the intra-party crisis in the state BJP.
Munde sent shock waves in the party by calling on senior leaders from other political parties, including senior Congressman Vilsarao Deshmukh, last week. He also met Shiv Sena CEO Uddhav Thackeray, and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal in a clear indication that he was keen to gather pressure on the party.
The BJP bigwigs in New Delhi are caught in a dilemma. “The central leadership doesn’t want to give the impression that it has yielded to Munde-ji’s pressure tactics. At the same time, the BJP can’t afford to lose Munde-ji, a key OBC leader to a rival party,” said a state party functionary on Tuesday.