We will have to wait till this afternoon or even Monday to find out if beleaguered deputy leader of the opposition Gopinath Munde will remain in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
We willu00a0have to wait till this afternoon or even Monday to find out if beleagueredu00a0 deputy leader of the opposition Gopinath Munde will remain in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The party high command met in New Delhi on Saturday to decide the fate of Munde, but could not reach a decision in the absence of arch rival Nitin Gadkari.
Meanwhile, Munde's supporters are not about to give up without a fight. They have started a campaign on Facebook in support of the deputy leader of opposition in the Loksabha.
The page, called 'Support Loknete Gopinath Munde to Save Maharashtra' has been created by Munde supporter and BJP corporator in the Pune Municipal Corporation, Uzal Keskar, and has got more than 1,000 members within two days of its creation.
This latest show of support comes after Munde's June 9 no-show during the formation of the BJP-RPI-Shiv Sena alliance. That led to talk that he was leaving the party. Talk of Munde slipping within party ranks has been doing the rounds ever since Nitin Gadkari was made the party's national chief late last year.
On Friday, in a statement made from his Worli residence, Munde made his displeasure with the party leaders evident, by making a direct attack on Gadkari, who is a Member of the Legislative Council and didn't face the voters in the last elections, when he said, "I have been in active politics for the last 40 years, and have been an elected representative for 37 years."
In the last few days, Munde has kept everyone guessing on whether he is leaving the BJP and joining another party, by meeting leaders from various political parties. However, he attributes the sudden spurt in his social activities to the friendship he shares with the elected representatives from various parties.
Meanwhile, amidst the entire hullabaloo, Keskar, a rebel who was expelled from the party after he decided to contest the assembly elections in 2009, decided to create the Facebook page. He claims to be a Munde supporter and says, "I have created the page because I think we need Mundeji. I am a Munde and RSS supporter. Already people have started supporting the campaign."
Within the party too, there are murmurings from Keskar supporters asking him to continue with his campaign.
At present, Munde is the leader with the largest pull within the party. His daughter Pankaja and nephew Dhananjay are in the state assembly and council respectively. In Mumbai, most MLAs and even the party president of the Mumbai unit is considered to be close to Munde.
ADVERTISEMENT
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
