Mumbai: Former Maharashtra minister and BJP national secretary Pankaja Munde on Thursday said she belongs to the BJP but the party does not belong to her. Pankaja Munde, daughter of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, has been seen away from politics since the defeat in the 2019 assembly elections.  

She was a cabinet minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government between 2014 and 2019. In the last state elections, Pankaja lost to her cousin and Nationalist Congress Party leader Dhananjay Munde in her seat Parli. Speaking at an event, Pankaja Munde said that BJP is a big party and it is not mine. "I belong to the BJP," she said, referring to the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha led by Mahadev Jankar. If there is any problem with my father, I can go to my brother's house. RSP is my maternal uncle.

In fact, Jankar, a close aide of Gopinath Munde, had said, "My sister's party will not benefit our community as the remote control will be with someone else." In the last few years, there has been speculation that Pankaja Munde has been sidelined by the BJP. After the first expansion of the Eknath Shinde-Fadnavis cabinet in August 2022, she had said that she might not be fit for a place in the cabinet. Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule had said in January that some people were trying to create a rift between the party and Pankaja Munde.

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